One Year
by agent000
Summary: Amestris has been overthrown by Drachma, and the surviving Amestrian citizens taken prisoner and forced to work as slaves. But Amestris will rise again. I know it. I believe it. I feel it. Amestris will rise again, and I will help that to happen.
1. Chapter 1

**_Okay...this one's quite a diversion from my normal style. I don't know where this idea came from, but it's been bothering me for awhile, so I decided to just give in and write it. Strange that it's not supernatural based, like most of my stories. (Yes, that is QUITE strange! Hehe) I wish that I could just quit starting new stories, so that it would be easy to finish my old ones, but I can't seem to tell my mind to shut up until I finish my older stories, so I have to give in and write these new ones down in order to have enough sanity to continue plodding along on my older ones. Sigh. Just something I gotta deal with, I guess._**

**_Just so you know, I know nothing about Drachma, so I made up all the facts in this story about that country. Heck, I made up a lot of facts about lots of different things that I didn't know about. I just wanted to let you know that, just in case Arakawa-san had actually mentioned something that I had totally neglected to notice._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist. I own two FullMetal Alchemist keychains though. W00t!_**

One year, three months, eleven days, four hours, and twenty-seven minutes: That's how long it has been since I left my home country. That was when I lost my liberty, my freedom, my identity. I hardly even know who I am anymore.

My every waking moment is spent serving my master and mistress, two people I grow to hate more with each passing day. The reason I hate them is not because they are my master and mistress. It is not because I haven't seen any of my family or friends since I have been with them. It isn't even because they are people of Drachma. It is because they hate Amestris. I despise people who despise my country. My country is part of me, and I am part of it.

They keep trying to remind me that Amestris has fallen, that it has been overthrown and that I've been taken prisoner and forced to work as a slave. But I don't listen. Amestris is not dead. It will rise again. And I will live to see that day. I will even help to bring it about. Amestris's time will come.

I walked down the street while running another errand for my master with a cloak pulled over my head. I hate hiding my Amestrian nature, but if it were known, I would not even be allowed to buy bread. Some of my friends look almost Drachman, so they can blend in, and not be noticed. I, however, look extremely Amestrian, with my blond hair and blond eyes. With my cloak, I'm usually able to pull it off, as long as I don't speak. My accent betrays me.

I stopped at a street vendor and reached to grab some fruit. My glove and sleeve separated, exposing my auto-mail arm. Auto-mail is practically unheard of, here in Drachma. I usually try to avoid using my right hand, but sometimes I forget, being naturally right-handed.

"We don't have any food here for you Amestrian dogs!" shouted a woman running out and swinging a broom at me. I ducked and quickly ran in the other direction. I wasn't able to make a clean escape, however. Her accusation had aroused the attention of several of the nearby crowd, and they started chasing me. Amestrians were really despised in this part of town.

I picked up my pace and tried to outrun them, but they were really fast. A gust of wind caught at my hood and blew it back, exposing my blond hair. I would not be able to hide my nationality now. I ran even faster.

Suddenly, my foot caught on a loose stone, and I fell to the cobblestone pavement. I was able to land on my hands and my knees, but I dropped the basket of goods I had just bought for my master. If I didn't bring those home, and in good condition, he would whip me severely.

I was about to reach for the basket when I noticed that the mob was almost upon me. I was just going to have to take my chances with my master. At least he was only one person. I jumped up and ran.

I continued running until I felt someone grab me by the arm and pull me into a nearby alleyway. She cupped her hand across my mouth so that I wouldn't say anything, and waited. The Drachman mob ran past, not knowing where I had gone, but continuing to try and follow me regardless.

She removed her hand from my mouth, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned to face my rescuer, and muttered, "Thank you."

"You're Amestrian, aren't you?" she said.

A tear came to my eye as I nodded and said, shakily, "Yes."

"What did you do to get them so mad at you?"

I shook my head. "I don't think I did anything. They just…hate me."

The woman sighed. "War is a terrible thing. It makes people forget that they're really human. It builds hate and encourages evil. And then we justify it by saying that we're just defending our own country, whether we really are or not."

I didn't say a word during her rant. I just let her talk. She then turned to me after noticing that I hadn't replied yet, and asked, "Do you have a place to stay?"

"I live over on the grass hill with my master," I said. The grass hill was a part of town where some of the richest people resided.

"So you're a slave then?" she asked. I nodded. "That's too bad," she said, "That's just really too bad. Haven't you ever tried to escape?"

"I get caught every time I try," I said, "I look so Amestrian that it's easy to pick me out."

She looked at me again, and said, "If you'd like to escape, I'll help you. I may be Drachman, but I despise the way that we treat our Amestrian brothers."

"You would risk your own reputation by helping an Amestrian?" I asked.

"I would risk everything for a cause I considered just," she said, "And this is definitely a just cause. I believe it is our duty to treat our fellow man with respect, no matter which country they come from."

I choked back a sob. "But-But even if I did manage to escape, what good would it do? I look so Amestrian, unlike the others, that I would never be able to blend in. I would get caught after a period of time, and returned to my master."

The woman managed a light smile, and said, "I've been watching you for some time. You're really strong. I believe that you could be one of those that could actually help your people regain their foothold and return to their native country."

"Do you really think so?" I asked. She nodded. Tears started pricking my eyes. "Then," I said, "Please help me."

She pulled the hood back up over my head, and led me down the alleyway to a door. She knocked on the door three times hard, and two times soft. I gathered that that must've been the code knock for this place.

A man opened the door and ushered us both in, and then quickly shut and bolted the door behind us. I looked towards my benefactor, who just nodded and said, "It's okay to take your cloak off now if you want to."

I proceeded to do so, and when the man turned back around from bolting the door, and saw me, he jumped back in a little bit of shock. Didn't he know that I was going to be Amestrian? Wasn't that what this whole operation was about?

He cleared his throat and explained, "I knew that you were going to be Amestrian, because helping your people is what we do, but I never expected someone to be brought here that looked as Amestrian as you. Usually, I'm only brought people that can blend in. How is it that you were able to get away when you look as Amestrian as you do?"

The woman explained, "He has a really strong character. I think he might be able to lead his people out of slavery."

The man rubbed his chin. "So, this boy is a special case then?" The woman nodded. The man bent down to look into my eyes. "Son," he said, "This is a big responsibility that you're taking on. I'm going to need you to be completely honest with me. Do you understand?"

I nodded my head. "Good," he said, "Now, it would be a lot easier on you if you knew some skill or had some trait that almost no one else had that you could use to your advantage. Do you have such an ability?"

I coughed. "Actually…yes," I said, "I, uh, I was an alchemist when I was still back in Amestris, though I haven't tried to perform alchemy since I came here. I didn't want my master to discover that and exploit it."

"Quite understandable," said the man, as he stood back up. "Alchemy could be quite useful, if you're really good at it. How great is your skill?"

"Well," I said as I scratched the back of my head, "I'm sure that I'm kind of rusty at it right now, so I don't know how well I can do it. But when I was back in Amestris, I was a State Alchemist."

"A State Alchemist?" cried the man, "At your age? Didn't Amestris only allow the best of the best to become State Alchemists? And didn't that mean joining the military? Why would they let a kid do that?"

I glared at him for a second. I hated being called a kid, but I was just going to have to let that go this time. "They made a special exception for me," I said, "I was unusually skilled at alchemy, so they made a special provision for me to join the military at the age of twelve."

The man smacked his head. "At the age of twelve? Wait, are you telling me that you are...Edward Elric?"

I looked up into the man's eyes. "My name is known all the way up here?"

The man just nodded, shocked, and then turned to the woman. "You're right, he IS a special case." He turned back to me and extended his hand. "Come, you have much to learn before you can start your mission."

I grasped his hand and followed him. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what I was doing. But I didn't care. I was going to save Amestris.

**_Did you like this story? Should I continue it? Please let me know your thoughts in your reviews._**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Hey, everyone! This story's been updated, believe it or not! Yeah! Hehehe. I honestly wasn't sure where to go with this story, so I enlisted the help of someone else. Yes, this is another co-authored story. Heh, I just love doing co-authored stories, hehehe. We'll be rotating chapters, one by me, the next by her, and so on. She goes by RR-Major-Ed-Pride. Go and check out her other stories. She's an awesome writer, and comes up with some of the darndest ideas, hehe. Her mind's almost as twisted as mine! Hehehehe_**

**_Anyway, hope that you enjoy this chapter._**

**_Disclaimer: Neither of us own FullMetal Alchemist. Hmmm...what kind of witty thing can I say here to make you guys always read my disclaimers...ummm...did you know that I dress like Ed? Even when I go to work? Yeah, seriously, I do! I even have a red coat with that snake-cross symbol on the back, whatever it's called. Yeah, I'm serious! I really do!_**

I walked down the street; thoughts of escape and liberating Amestris buzzed in and out of my head. I came to a stop at the spot where I'd tripped. The basket was lying in the alleyway, and all the goods were in less then good condition.

"Great…" I sighed, the sudden realization of what would happen when I'd return to my master empty handed made all the good thoughts I'd been thinking wash away. Coming up with an explanation why I returned with nothing to my master dominated most of my thoughts now.

I picked up the basket and started waling again, the sky was growing dark with gray clouds, it was going to rain. It would tae another ten minutes or so to get back to my masters house, so I had plenty of time to at least try and think of something. The motivation to think of something good kept me from feeling really sick, only to have the seriously demotivating thought of how horribly I'd be punished for lying AND coming back empty handed. I figured either way it wasn't going to be good for me…

Quickening my pace, I continued to run possible excuses though my head. It had started to rain, the water soaked though my cloak down to my skin, if I didn't hurry I'd probably catch a chill…another thing that would not benefit me in the long run. It seemed like my good fortune keeps on piling up.

"Finally…" I muttered in a less then enthusiastic manner as I walked up the cobblestone walkway towards my master's house. It was a large house, in terms of the vast number of hallways, compared to the other houses, it was also had two floors. There was a large garden in the front filled with a verity of flowers; my mistress seemed to have quite the green thumb, there was also a small shack where those who'd failed where forced to sleep for a set number of nights…I was most likely its' next tenant. I went around to the back and opened the back door that lead to the kitchen, it seemed that nobody noticed I'd returned, I wasn't complaining.

I set the basket down on a nearby stool so I could hang up my cloak by the stove to dry. I then went to drying myself off, by the time I had got inside it looked like I'd fallen in a lake. My hair was dripping considerably so I went and grabbed an old towel to try and get it dry, dry enough at least so that it wouldn't drip. That's when one of the servants walked in and spotted me, he had a very unhappy look on his face.

"Where have you been?" he hissed, seeing that my luck wasn't with me that moment I looked down and apologized "You better have a good explanation why you're late, the master is not in a good mood." He said "Wait…where's the items you where supposed to buy?"

"I was…chased by a mob; I dropped the basket losing everything inside." I muttered as if I'd just swallowed vinegar. The servant frowned and shook his head.

"You've done it now…you let yourself be seen didn't you? You know that…Amestrians…are worth nothing here, how could you let yourself be seen?" he snapped, he had said 'Amestrians' as if it was a very foul word. But he was right, we where worth nothing to a good portion of the Drachman population. I could say 'a good portion' because now I was aware that not all Drachmans hated Amestrians.

"It was an accident…" I muttered.

"Accident or not, you know what's going to happen when you tell the master. That stuff was really needed tonight, the master and mistress are hosting a very important party and it was key that you get those goods."

"What! Nobody told me that." I stammered, this was going from bad to worse by the second!

"Why should the master tell you anything? No matter…what's done is done…go now, they're waiting in the living room." The servant said shaking his head. I figured I only had time to finish drying my hair, so I did that and attempted to dry the bottom of my shoes as well…it was best not to further aggravate and muddy shoes through the house would not bode well.

I slowly walked out of the kitchen towards the living room; a knot started to form in my stomach coupled with a hint of deep regret. I stood at the door to the living room, this room was filled with books and there was a large fireplace in the far wall with two large cushioned chairs facing it. One chair was my masters, the other was my mistress'…the both of them where sitting in their respective chairs and didn't seem to notice me, or maybe they did but chose to ignore me.

"You…s…summoned me, master?" I stammered meekly, my voice gave away my fear flawlessly. My master held up his hand and motioned to me to come in, I did so. I stopped when I was standing just behind the chair, my master then asked,

"Why are you late?"

"I…had t…to take a longer route back, master." That was true enough I thought.

"Why?"

"I was being…chased master, by a mob."

"Ha! Let yourself be seen didn't you? How stupid, tell me…did you at least bring back what I asked you too?"

"…" This was what I wasn't fully prepared for; well I didn't have a good answer for it anyway.

"Speak!"

"I'm sorry master no I didn't!" I said quickly "I dropped the basket and lost everything." At that moment I could feel tears starting to well up in my eyes, I couldn't help it; by failing I sealed my fate.

"What…"

"I'm sorry…I…I lost everything." Did he really have to make me repeat it? It was bad enough that I had to wait for what form of punishment I'd get for this, but to continue saying it was like rubbing salt on an open wound.

"I see…well, you know very well that I do not tolerate failure and deal with such in a very strict manner."

"Y…yes" I could barely speak now.

"And…you've done this before. I thought you'd learned your lesson."

"…" I had nothing to say, what could I say? I couldn't tell him the real reason why I'd been late, that I'd been off secretly planning to escape and possibly free my county and its people.

"Dear, our guests will be arriving soon, we'll just have to make due," my mistress said, I could hardly believe what I was hearing. "Leave it till after, it would be unsightly to have blood stains on the floor."

"Fine," my master agreed "you will wait in the kitchen where you won't get in the way; I'll deal with you later. Now leave!"

"Y…yes, m…master." My heart and stomach had just jumped into my throat; I staggered out of the living room and made my way back to the kitchen. I couldn't feel anything; it was like my whole body went numb, but not from the cold…from fear and the fact that now I had to wait for the inevitable. When I reached the kitchen and found a seat in the far back, I sat down and pondered my fortune. That's when something crossed my mind, alchemy!

Why not use alchemy to get out of this? But that idea was shot down quickly when the thought of ruining the other plan, which involved other people, came to mind. I wasn't about to sacrifice at least two lives just to save myself from something like this. It wouldn't be right; I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I'd done something so selfish. I could take a few more sleepless nights in a cold leaking shack and new scars if it meant the freedom of so many.

It would be another four hours, at about 11 p.m., that the little party ended. I felt it ended too soon but it was going to end eventually so it was no use fighting it. I was prepared but…that still didn't make it any better, it was after this that I came to hate the number five. Five…for being late, five…for coming back empty handed.

It was over sooner then I'd thought; though I could hardly move…the whip wheals made moving both hard and painful. Two other servants where ordered to take me out to the shack, I'd be staying there for five nights; five sure was a nasty number. The only thing though that seemed to make it seem not so bad was the thought of ending it all. Returning to Amestris, seeing my family again…I was going to make it happen, no matter what.

**_Did you enjoy that? Hopefully you did. I really enjoy her style of writing. Heck, if you like my taste in authors, you should also check out SakuraSagura, EllenTee, NikeFemme, AlchemyOtaku, and uh...I'll think of some others, heh heh...um...oh, check out enVii! You've GOT to read that guy's writings! He's a nut! (I think it's a guy, but I'm just guessing.)_**

**_Anyway, please leave a review, and that might convince me to update soon. Hehe. See you later!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Okay, I managed to get another chapter written, finally! Didn't RR-Major-Ed-Pride do great on that last chapter? I sure thought she did! (Yes, by the way, for those of you who didn't seem to catch on last time, that last chapter was written bya co-author, not me! I suppose that it's a little harder to catch the difference than with "Me in this Android Body", because both me and RR-Major-Ed-Pride are almost equally twisted, though I still think that I might be just a bit more...I don't know, we'll see. Heh. Sakura-chan isn't twisted, just creative. Hehe. Waves at Sakura-chan, since I know she'll be reading this. Hehe, I love that last chapter she wrote for "Me in this Android Body" though, it was awesome! That last chapter for her story, "If I were You" is really awesome as well!)_**

**_Disclaimer: Why do I even bother saying it? Don't you know by now that we don't own FullMetal Alchemist? Man, are you guys ever slow! Heh, yeah, it's fun to insult my readers' intelligence. They keep coming back for more, so I guess that I don't have to worry about offending them. Heck, they keep coming back for more every time I kill Ed in one of my fics, even though they protest loudly every time it happens. I guess that they secretly like it. Heh._**

I couldn't sleep. I flopped over onto my stomach, but that didn't help much. The welts from the whip still hurt pretty badly. I was also shivering from the cold in this drafty shack, and my mind was racing, trying to come up with a way to free our people.

"You're still awake, Edward?" came a small female voice from the mat across the room. Male and female servants weren't even allowed separate quarters when forced to sleep in the shack. Thankfully, she was just a child, a few years younger than I was, and we were the only two in the shack at the time. She had been sent here after being caught attempting to escape.

"Yeah, I'm still awake. Who could sleep in a place like this anyway?"

"I'm cold; can I come over next to you?"

I was about to protest, but then I remembered how naïve and childlike she was. It wouldn't hurt anything to let her be near me. Besides, I was pretty cold too. "Uh…sure, come over here beside me."

She came over and snuggled up beside me, even wrapping her arms around my neck, which almost choked me. I felt a little guilty for allowing her to do this, but sleeping next to each other might actually allow us to get some sleep. If we didn't get enough sleep to do our work properly the next day, the consequences would be severe. Conscience would just have to be put on hold for the moment.

"You know what? You remind me of my brother somewhat, except that he was a bit taller." I ignored that comment about my height, since it came from a naïve little girl, and let her continue. "My brother has visions, actually, but people rarely ever took him seriously. He even predicted the Drachman invasion, but no one paid attention to him until the Drachman military forces were upon us."

"You're serious?" I asked, "He really predicted that?"

"Mmhmm, he got that ability from Grandad. Neither one of them likes that ability, but they still have it."

"I see," I mused, "When was the last time you saw your brother? If you know where he is, I'd like to talk with him."

"I don't know where he is," she said, "I haven't seen him since the invasion."

I sighed. "That's too bad. I could've really used his council."

"Um…" she hesitated, "He did say more than just that, but he told me not to tell anyone except the person it was about."

"Well, who was it about?" I asked.

"It was about a teenage state alchemist…something Elric."

"Edward Elric," I corrected for her, though I must admit that I was pretty surprised to have been included in her brother's vision. "Please don't tell anyone, but that's me. That's probably why I remind you of your brother."

"You're a state alchemist? Then why haven't you used alchemy since you've been here?"

"I couldn't take the risk," I said, "Can you imagine what would happen if our master found out that I was a state alchemist?"

She nodded. "That would be chaos. He would try to use you for his own personal gain. Who knows what would happen?"

"I don't particularly want to have to find out," I said.

"Understood," she said, and proceeded to tell me the vision.

The next morning, I got up, and went to the kitchen to begin my chores. I overheard one of the other servants debated with the master about giving him his freedom. The master only granted one's freedom if he could get something out of the deal. Since one rarely had anything valuable enough to bargain with the master about, I was curious to know what this person had.

Though I knew it was rude, I decided to eavesdrop. An Amestrian servant didn't gain his freedom every day, and even if he did, he usually wound right back up in slavery with another master, once he was caught wandering around on the streets.

"I have some information which I know that you would very much like to have. I will give it to you if you will grant my freedom in return," I overheard.

The master tried to threaten the man into giving him the information anyway, but the man wouldn't budge. There wasn't really much that the master could do to force the man to give him the information. He was just trying to drive the fear into him, in the hopes of getting the information for free. The man apparently knew this, and didn't budge.

"Fine," the master finally said, "If you give me information that is worthwhile, I will grant you your freedom."

"No," said the man, "You have to grant me my freedom first, and then I will give you the information."

"Whatever," said the master, "Just make sure that you give me this information that I so desperately need to hear. If you fail to come through on your end of the bargain, I will see to it that you are recaptured and severely punished."

"Understood," said the man.

"Now what is this information?" said the master.

"Among the slaves you just purchased, one of them is a really scrawny kid that bears a striking resemblance to one of the slaves you already own."

"So?" said the master, growing a bit irritated.

"So," said the man, "The one that he bears a resemblance to, I just overheard last night, talking to somebody else. It appears that he is actually a state alchemist, and he has been hiding that from you."

"A state alchemist? You're crazy! Who is it?"

"It's the short blond kid…Edward, I think his name is."

"Him? The idiot that lets himself be seen in public? That Edward? Why would they let him be a state alchemist, isn't he too young?"

"There were rumors back in Amestris about a kid who had become a state alchemist," said the slave, "I never paid much attention though, because I didn't really care."

"So what do you suggest I do about this?" asked the master.

"Well," said the slave, "Obviously, he's not overly willing to share his alchemical abilities with you. Maybe if you threatened that other kid that I mentioned that I think might be his brother, maybe he'd be a little more willing to comply with your wishes."

"You have earned your freedom. Go," said the master with a flick of his hand, "But know this, if this information turns out to be false…"

"It won't be false," replied the man.

"It had better not be," said the master.

I pressed my back against the wall, and in a shudder, sank down so that I was sitting on my heels. My master knew my secret now. And what was this about him having my brother? Al? Did he have Al? What was I supposed to do, should I run…or stay? I couldn't just leave Al alone, but I couldn't just expose myself and let Amestris suffer either. I was getting a headache. I couldn't make up my mind what to do.

The kitchen door slammed open, and in stepped the master. "Where is Edward?" he shouted. I shivered. I didn't want him to see me, not just yet. One of the maids pointed her finger in my general direction, and the master turned around and saw me cowering in the corner.

He walked over to me, grabbed me by the collar, and yanked me up to my feet. "Come with me," he said gruffly, "I have something to show you."

He continued to drag me by the collar as he led the way, though he was holding his hand up high, so I had to stand on my tiptoes just to follow him. We soon arrived at the building where new slaves were kept. It was a filthy building, and I always tried to avoid coming here. However, if this was where Al was being kept…

He opened the door, threw me in, and then followed behind me. I coughed for a few seconds from the stale air in the building, and then got my bearings and tried to look around. It was really dark in this room, and I couldn't see very well. There was only one tiny window in this whole shack, as well as the light that crept in from between the boards on the walls.

Gradually, my eyes began to adjust. I scanned the room, and saw several slaves staring at me in silence. They were just as confused as I was. The master went over to one of them, picked him up by the collar, and dragged him over to where I was.

I took one look at that face, and I knew. This was Al. He had grown since I had last seen him, and he was sick and weak, but I knew. I just knew.

"Al!" I yelled, and was about to throw my arms around him when the master jerked him back. Al looked at me with a tear-streaked back, and mouthed something, though no sound came out. He repeated it again, though still no sound came forth. This time, I caught it though. He was trying to say "Brother".

"Al…your voice…" Al looked at me and sadly shook his head. Tears started to sting at my eyes. How did this happen? How did Al lose his voice? I was angry and wanted to hit something, so I swung my arm and took a hole out of the nearby wall. No one really cared that much. It did let more light in, after all.

The master then drew out a blade and placed it under my brother's chin. Al gasped and looked at me. I glared at my master, and then, without thinking, clapped my hands together, and transmuted the blade onto my auto-mail.

"Anyone who touches my little brother will have to pay dearly!" I shouted. The master grinned a sinister grin. I had done just what he'd wanted.

**_Ok, your turn, RR-Major-Ed-Pride! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Readers, please leave a nice review, and she might consider updating sooner! I can't specifically remember, but I think that she might be one of those writers who won't write until she gets a certain amount of reviews. I've run into a few writers like that, and I can't remember if she's one of them or not. Just in case she is, leave a review! Please! Hehe_**


	4. Chapter 4

Note Thingy: Before I start this chapter I'd like to say something, if that's cool with agent-san , I lobved chapter three! Yes, I review sometimes to my own stories (and sense this is my first co-authored story I guess I'll most likely be reviewing to the chapters that agent000 writes). Lets' see…was there something else I was going to say? Oh yeah! No wait…now I'm just wasting time typing randomness and not getting to the story…sorry! One last wittle thing, **DISCLAMER!** Neither agent000 nor I own FullMetal Alchemist, though maybe if we torture and torment Edu-kun with our insanity he'll give up all rights to himself D Ed: What? Me: D Ed: .o no –said with deep anguish- Whee! Just wanted to say that!

_**Agent000: Hmmm, Agent-san? That's a new one, hehe. Never been called that before. I don't mind it though. You're welcome to call me by my real name too, if you like. Heh. SakuraSagura calls me Mel-chan. I don't care what you call me, as long as it's not rude, hehe.**_

Just like when I first met the Colonel, I'd danced right in the palm of my masters' hand. By using alchemy in front of him, I just demonstrated my level of ability, this complicated things greatly.

"Well, well, well, it was true. You are a State Alchemist…tell me, why didn't you tell me?" the master said, all I could do was glare, the fact that he could easily kill Al faster then I could reach him kept me from ripping him apart.

"Not talking hm? If you're worried about being punished for keeping this from me then you have good reason to be, but, if you willingly allow me to use your 'aptitude' for my self then maybe it won't be so severe."

"I'm…not stupid, either way you're still going too." I hissed, no matter how I looked at the situation, someone was going to get hurt. I wasn't about to make that person Alphonse, he really did look unwell. My master looked me in the eyes, normally whenever he did this it almost always gave me a very disturbing feeling, but this time it made me hate him with every fiber of my being. I'd never really felt this way before, sure I'd been mad at loads of people in my past but never like this.

"If that's how you feel…so be it…" my master glared, he let go of Al and shoved him to the ground "You're actions will only get those you care about hurt." With this last comment he landed a swift kick into Al's ribs.

"Al!" I rushed over to him and turned him on his side, Al was gasping and wheezing, small sobs filled the spaces between each gasp of breath. I couldn't stop myself; I wanted to kill him, that's the only thought that existed in my mind. Jumping up, I charged straight at my master, all sense of reason was gone.

"Such a gullible dog…" my master sneered, he still had the knife out and proved to be much faster then I had first anticipated. Stepping to the side, he grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back; he then wrapped his other free arm around my neck. This would have been easy to escape from had he not ended it by stabbing me in the left shoulder. The arm that was around my neck also happened to be the same one holding the knife. Each time I tried to free myself the blade would either make the already unpleasant wound larger or go deeper into my shoulder.

"When given the proper 'motivation' you loathsome Amestrian dogs will do anything to save yourselves. Now, you are going to do everything I tell you to or your little brother suffers for you, do you understand?"

"I…hate you!" was all I could muster.

"Good, I hate you too. Now, do you understand!"

"…" The master started to move the blade around, which was incredibly painful, and said,

"You are already looking at another five lashes and a day and night in the shack, do you enjoy pain that much? If I'm not mistaken," still keeping my right arm in a tight grip, he jabbed his thumb into my back "you still haven't fully recovered from the last time you were whipped."

The knife in the shoulder was bad enough; with the masters thumb jabbed into my back the pain was unbearable. My eyes started to sting, another irritation to add to the list, and water.

"…" Clearly the look on my face was enough for the master for now; he let go of my arm and 'kindly' pulled the blade from my shoulder.

"Arg, you got blood all over one of my good shirts…now I'll have to burn it. Not to mention I'll have to sterilize this blade. You are nothing but trouble, consider yourself lucky that you can do alchemy otherwise I'd have shot you for being a useless klutz worth even less then your fellow Amestrians."

"Ngh…" I slumped to my knees and sorely clapped my hands and removed the arm blade. With that gone I was able to try and stop my bleeding shoulder, my master left the shack leaving me with Al and the other new slaves.

Al, who'd recovered slightly from the kick, crawled over to me and tried to see if I was ok. Mentally, I could have been better. Physically, beaten and bruised and greatly under the weather. My pride was shot completely, what little I had left anyway. I looked at Al, who was a somewhat sickly pale color and muttered,

"How…did it happen?"

Al looked down at the ground, he had a rather pained look on his face, I sighed and shook my head,

"I've…missed you Al, it's only been a year but still," Al looked up at me for a moment then looked off to the side as if he wanted to say something but, not because he had lost his voice, wasn't able to say it.

"You know…just yesterday…I met someone." I continued. Al looked at me with a raised eyebrow "Nothing like that Al, she said…" I stopped; this place probably wasn't the best place to talk about this "Say Al, have you seen Winry?"

He shook his head; it was strange though because when he did he didn't look me in the eye first. I shrugged it off for the time being,

"That's ok, I'm just glad you're ok." I carefully scooted back against the wall of the shack and looked around; I'd have to go back to the house eventually. I could only imagine what my master had in mind in terms of using my alchemy. From this point on I could only see both our lives being made more and more miserable. I couldn't let him hurt Al.

After reassuring Al I'd come back, I started back towards the house. My shoulder wasn't bleeding nearly as bad as it was a while ago but I still had to get it fixed up. That'd mean I'd have to go see the doctor that was hired by the master to deal with sick or wounded slaves. He wasn't paid much and he didn't do a very good job considering we're 'just slaves', but this wound still needed to be dressed so that it wouldn't get infected. It was funny, in a cruel ironic way, getting whipped doesn't count as getting hurt. So we're not allowed to come to the doctor after we've been punished.

When I came to the doctors 'house', a sort of makeshift hut, I sighed and tapped on the door with my foot considering my arms where preoccupied.

The doctor opened the door and peered down at me, he had a rather annoyed look on his face.

"Oh…it's you." He grumbled. He then opened the door some more and let me in, I sat down on the examination table in the far corner of the one room hut. "What did you do this time?"

"You don't want to know." I replied, he 'accidentally' snapped me with his special latex gloves and snapped,

"Hey! I deal with your kind almost everyday! Don't get cheeky with me."

I didn't answer that, personally I thought he was kind of off mentally. He then started to examine the stab wound.

"It's small but deep, here," the doctor handed me a gauze pad and some gauze to wrap it with "That should do it for now, if you have any complications…hesitate to return."

"Thanks…" I muttered getting up, this was exactly what I'd expected the check up would be like, I stuck the gauze in my pocket and left. When I got to the back door of the kitchen I paused for a moment, the thought of escape started to mull around in my head. I then opened the door and made for a back room to dress the wound, later on I was busy washing dishes when my mistress walked in.

"Edward…come with me right now." She said. I looked up from the dishes and looked at her; it was strange to hear her address me by my name. Normally she just says 'you' or 'slave' or something of the sort.

"Yes…ma'am." I dried my hands off and followed her out of the kitchen into the living room, my master was there along with another man and woman. They gave me questioning looks.

"Ah! Here he is!" My master said standing up and guiding me over to where he was sitting "Go on then, show them your alchemy."

"On what?" I asked. That was stupid of me. I got a very cold and venomous look from my master.

"On this," he said dropping the teacup he'd been holding on the ground, it shattered into many pieces. I couldn't help but heave a rather annoyed sigh, which was rewarded with another cold and venomous glare from both the master and mistress. I clapped my hands and fixed the cup, picking it up I handed it back to my master.

"That's quite impressive," the other man said "You have quite the little Amestrian there."

My eye twitched slightly at the 'little' comment but didn't show any other sign of emotion after that.

"Yes well, sadly that is all he's able to do. He's useless around the house, not to mention terrible at going out and getting goods from the market. He's really not good for anything else, that's why I intend to get as much as I can out of him and his little 'talent' before I get rid of him."

I jolted from my thoughts when I heard the phrase 'get rid of him', he lied! Why didn't I see it? He was going to exploit my alchemy until there was nothing left, and then get rid of me. When my master says 'get rid of' it either means he's going to sell me to someone else or he's going to kill me. I was leaning more towards the fact that he's gonna kill me because he was either going to get a good deal for me or just get rid of me because I was useless either way.

Another thought crossed my mind after all this, what if he found out that Al could do alchemy? He'd probably do the same thing to Al as he was planning to do with me. What a predicament, but I had two possible ways out of this, one of them was that girl I'd met in the market. The other was to meet with that little girls' brother, the one who had the visions.

"Boy, what is your name?" the visitor woman asked, I looked at her for a moment…that was strange, now that I thought about it…she looked kind of familiar. I shook my head trying to clear it for a moment before I answered but was interrupted when my master snapped,

"Answer!"

"Edward" I said hastily, if only I could figure out a way to make my master pay…he'd pay for hurting Al, hurting me, keeping us Amestrians as slaves and treating us like dirt.

"Well Edward, you seem to have an intriguing knack at alchemy." She said.

* * *

Feyu! That was kinda hard…couldn't think of anything…at first! What do ya think? Agent-san, you can continue to leave author notes if you want…I may leave one or two short ones…every so often…(head smacked of head board of bed…zzzzzz).

_**Heh, I'm always leaving author notes, you don't have to tell me twice! Hehe. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please review, and I'll try to update soon with my chapter.**_


	5. Chapter 5

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Hey, everybody! Yes, I finally have a new chapter for this story! Thanks for your patience. That last chapter was awesome, by the way, RR-Major-Ed-Pride. I really enjoyed it. Hope this chapter isn't too hard for you to write to. Heh. Me and my curveballs. Hehehe. You're welcome to ask for help if you need it.

Disclaimer: We still don't own FullMetal Alchemist. Er, actually, we own it every other day. Yesterday and tomorrow, but never today. (Sorry, reference from Through the Looking Glass.)

I looked up into the face of my master's guest and gasped. It had suddenly hit me. That woman was the woman I had met in the marketplace. What was she doing here? Why was she my master's guest? I didn't get much time to try and figure it out though, because my master suddenly yanked me to my feet and dragged me outside.

I wanted to ask him where he was taking me, but at the same time, I knew that I probably wouldn't like the answer, so I kept silent. We walked along for a few minutes until we finally came to a building that housed a lot of my master's machinery. Even from the outside, the machinery was extremely noisy and loud.

I gave my master a quizzical look. "One of my machines is in bad need of repair," the master said, "It could explode any moment, and kill everyone on the plantation. None of my mechanics can fix the defect. Since you're an alchemist, I figured that you could probably do something about it."

"But I can't go into that building without protection!" I protested. "That place is just too noisy!"

The master chuckled. "Oh, so the safety of your brother isn't protection enough, eh?" I growled, and turned into the building, hearing my master laugh behind my back.

As soon as I stepped inside the building, my hands flew up to my ears, but it didn't help much. It was just too darn loud in here. It was so loud it actually hurt.

I looked around to find someone I could ask about the defective machine, and soon found a fellow slave. I tried to shout over the noise, though I don't think that he actually heard me. He seemed to understand me however, probably from reading my lips, and motioned for me to follow him.

He led me to where the defective machine was. I quickly inspected it, and found that sure enough, it was as the master had said. It was ready to explode at any moment. There wasn't much I could do to get it working again, being an alchemist and not a mechanic, but I was able to neutralize the elements to keep it from exploding. Being as volatile as it was though, it took several hours to accomplish, since I had to treat it with so much care.

I finally stepped outside again after all that. My head was still throbbing from all the noise, and my ears hurt, but it felt good to be outside again.

I started walking back towards the house. I knew that I still had some errands to do. After a few moments of walking, I felt someone grab my shoulder and spin me around. I turned to look up into my master's angry face. What could he possibly be angry about this time? What did I do wrong?

His lips were moving in a very angry manner, though no sound reached my ears. I just stared blankly at him, wondering what was going on. Finally, I was able to make out what he was saying on his lips. "I called your name ten times, didn't you hear me?"

I shook my head, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't."

His scowl got even angrier as he mouthed something else to me. It took me a few tries to decipher what he was saying there too, but he was saying, "Don't you yell at me!"

I didn't know what he was talking about. I yelled? I replied back, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

He sighed and shoved me on my back into the grass. He got a look of resignation on his face and trudged off. I picked myself up and rubbed the back of my head. What was with him? Then suddenly, it hit me. I hadn't been able to hear him, not even when he was right up in my face. I had gone deaf. That explained why I was yelling at him. I couldn't hear myself speak.

No one was around to see me, so I placed my head in my hands and started to cry. Me and Al, we were both such a mess right now. Al was mute, and I was deaf. Finally, I dried my tears and stood back up. I didn't know whether this deafness was temporary or permanent, but I decided that I had better prepare for the worst. I would have to learn sign language. Heck, it would benefit Al too, since he couldn't speak. We could learn it together. He could be my ears, and I could be his voice, once I learned not to yell.

I turned and headed back to that noisy building. My master had obviously given up on me for the rest of the day, so I figured that he wasn't going to miss me. The people in that building had all been signing to each other, so they must've been deaf too. One of them should surely be able to teach me.

Sure enough, the people there were excited to have someone from the outside want to learn their language. Apparently, they had all been born deaf. They were especially excited that I could speak aloud, and communicate with others, but they were sorry to hear that I had lost my hearing during my business with the machine.

Their ability to read lips was quite impressive. I wondered how they did it so well. Perhaps it was because that was their only way of communicating with the outside world.

Soon, it began to grow dark. I thanked my instructors with the new signs I had learned that day, and headed out, towards the shack where the new slaves were kept. I had to explain all this to Al, though I knew it was going to hurt.

I stepped into the dark, dusty building, and Al instantly bounded over to me, though he had to stop and pant for breath. The poor thing was so sick and weak. He looked up at me with those eyes of his that said, "I'm so glad to see you, Brother." I wanted to cry right then, but I held back.

"Would you like to step outside for a minute, Al?" I said, motioning with my hand. He made a funny expression that I gathered was his reaction to the way that my voice sounded, but I ignored it for the time being.

He followed me outside, and I motioned for him to sit down. I turned to him and asked him if I was talking too loud for him. He made some hand motions and indicated that I was talking a little bit loud, so I tried to quiet down as much as I could. I then explained to him everything that had happened to me that day.

By the end of my story, he was bawling. I could tell that in those tears of his, there was a mixture of hurt and anger. I put my arms around him, and whispered, "I know, but it's okay. We're together now." He put his arms around me, and we hugged each other for several minutes, until he finally stopped crying.

I then told him about the sign language I was learning, and explained to him how it would be beneficial if he learned it as well, for various reasons. He seemed eager and willing, so I began with some of the signs I had learned that day. "This is the sign for 'thank you'," I said, making a hand motion that was similar to blowing a kiss. He repeated my motion.

"And this is the sign for love," I said. I clenched both of my fists, and crossed them at the wrists in front of my chest. He repeated that motion as well.

"This," I said, "Is the sign for hate." I pulled an invisible thread out of my chest between my thumb and middle finger, and then flicked it away from myself. Al repeated it. I wished it were that simple to get rid of my master. I sure hated him.

I continued with Al until I had shared with him all the signs I had learned that day. I stayed with him for several more minutes, talking with him, and going over the signs a few more times. Finally, I decided that I had better leave. I promised him that I would be back when I learned more signs. He seemed sad that I had to go so soon, but he seemed glad that we were learning a way to communicate with each other effectively.

I stood to leave, and he gave me a little wave. I hadn't even taught him that sign, but I guess that was a natural one. I waved in response, and then turned and left.

**__**

Did you enjoy that chapter? I hope so. Is that too hard of a chapter to respond to, RR-Major-Ed-Pride? I sure as heck hope not. I realize that it was a bit unfair to include a subject (sign language) that you probably don't know anything about. Just write whatever comes natural to you, okay? If you can't write any details on the sign language bit, then don't worry about it. Just focus on the story. I'll more than make up for the lack of details in my chapters, hehehe. As always, feel free to ask for help if you need it. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

For all of you readers, please, please review! We need the encouragement! Thanks a bunch for your support!


	6. Chapter 6

Yup! Dittley! I know little to nothing of sign language but that's ok! –Goes and googles it- Neyahaha! Sorry if it's a tad late, evil site won't let me do anything…but that's a rant that'd take up one whole chapter, heh. Let's see, what else…oh yeah! –Snap- X. Death to the master dude! How shall I kill him? –Ponders in dark corner of scary evilness-. But anyway, yeah…

Three days had gone by sense I lost my hearing. When I got the chance, I'd go visit Alphonse, in doing this it made the bitter thought of what may come seem…better. Sitting down next to Alphonse, he smiled and pointed to his ear, at first I wasn't really sure what he ment by this, then I caught on. I shook my head and said,

"Just muffles…I still can't understand what anybody is saying."

Al crossed his legs and rested his arms on his knees, I could see that he was still rather upset about everything that has happened. Not liking to see my younger brother so upset. With this in mind I held up my hand, Al looked up at me questioningly. With my hand still up I lowered my middle and ring finger, keeping my thumb, index finger and pinky up. Al could tell that this was a new sign and he seemed to cheer up a little, eager to know its' meaning.

"I showed you the sign for love right?" I said, Alphonse nodded and showed me the sign. "That's great Al, this sign is similar, it means 'I love you'."

Alphonse smiled and made the same sign. It had been some time sense I'd seen him smile, I couldn't help but smile too. We continued practicing the different signs, I'd been shown the alphabet a day ago, so I started showing Al those signs as well. He caught on pretty fast and learned all twenty-six letters fairly well.

Finally, I got up and brushed off my pants. Then I held up both index fingers, one next to my mouth the other just a few inches away. I then twisted my wrists and moved my fingers back and forth. Alphonse copied this motion,

"Yes…" I said, "I'll do my best to make it so you can again."

Al just blinked as I left the shack, he got up and peeked out of the small hole in the wall I had made with my fist, he rapped on the door of the shack…but I didn't notice. I continued walked back to the house and made my way towards the kitchen door. I placed my hand on the door handle and turned it, I didn't hear the creak that would turn an already good evening into one of the most unpleasant.

As I opened the door someone from behind slammed it shut again, I spun around and was face to face with my master. He looked very unhappy about something, I wasn't wholly sure whether it had something to do with me or he was just in a bad mood. Either way it seemed I'd be getting the short end of the stick.

"Just where have you been! There are countless other things I needed you to fix!" he ranted. Apparently he was too busy yelling at me to remember that I was deaf, he then noticed the slightly worried, but still annoyedly confused look on my face and stopped yelling. He then grabbed the front of my shirt and dragged me to the front of the house. We came to a stop near the front door, the master pointed.

He wanted me to fix a burnt down old shed, which was really odd. That shed must have burnt down at least four months ago. There was no way to restore it, not properly anyway. I turned my head and gave him a nod that said 'no'. This made him very angry, he forcefully let go of my shirt then hit me, he also shouted something at me. But I didn't hear it, nor did I feel like hearing it. My blood started to boil as I placed a hand over the side of my face. My master then pointed to the shack Al was in and seemed to make threatening motions. I got the gist of this and glared at him,

"I can't fix it, it's been like this too long. All the pieces might not still be there." I snapped. He hit me again, then pointed to the burnt down shed then towards the one Al was in and ran his thumb under his chin to imitate cutting his throat. I couldn't let anything happen to Al, not seeing any other choice I clapped my hands together. I took one last glance over at the shack.

I set my hands down on the chard remains of the old shed and there was a flash, the alchemic energy rebuilding it with impressive ease. Once the light was gone, there stood the shed, my master was smirking and nodding his head. I glanced at the newly restored shed and gave it a small scowl, it wasn't stable.

My master was just about to lead me back to the house when, sure enough; two of the small, spindly legs holding up the shed gave way. Involuntarily I shoved my master out of the way as the shed came crashing down. The next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground, unable to move. It felt like I was pinned to the ground, I glanced around and noticed that one of the support beams had landed on top of me.

I tried to move my legs, they seemed all right. I then checked my arms, my left shoulder was dislocated and I couldn't seem to move my right arm at all. I glanced down at my right and found that another support beam had caught it between the first one. I was stuck…and without a doubt my right arm was busted. If things got any worse then they are now, I'm not sure if I could take much more of this.

It felt like an eternity, finally somebody had managed to dig me out of the mess. It was a strenuous task but I was out, I hesitantly glanced down at my now free right arm. It was irreparable…busted all to heck…this wasn't going to get any better. The doctor soon came over and had a look at my remaining limbs. He said apart from all the really painful bruises I should be able to walk, with a small temporary limp, he then took a look at my left shoulder.

"Yep, dislocated…I'll have to put it back in place." He'd said this like it was him that would be suffering. The doctor took out an old gardening glove, he indicated that I should bite down on it. I muttered I didn't need it and that I'd been through worse, he just scoffed and shoved it in my mouth anyway. He took hold of my upper arm and readied himself, with one very sharp tug I soon realized just how handy that glove proved to be.

The pain was like none I'd ever experienced; it was heart wrenching and didn't go away. I couldn't hold it in any longer, in all of my life I don't think I ever screamed so loud in my life. The doctor then made a makeshift sling, he place my arm in it and seemed to then turn his attention to my master. They both talk about something, all the while I sat on the ground unsuccessfully fighting back tears. I tried to convince myself that my shoulder was the only reason why I was crying, but that didn't make things better.

I knew that now that my right arm was busted there was little to no chance that'd I'd be able to use alchemy until it got fixed. Also, if I couldn't perform alchemy then…I looked over at the shack Alphonse was in. That's when my master came walking up to me and grabbed the back of my shirt forcing me to stand up, that kind of hurt too, he then spoke real slowly so that I could try and read his lips, he said,

"You are now a useless cripple, now how am I supposed to insure the safety of your brother?"

"You wouldn't…not because of this…" I said, it must have been a bit loud judging by how the look on my masters face went from irritated to mad.

"You can no longer perform alchemy! You're useless!" he shouted, I may not have heard him but I knew what he was saying.

"This wouldn't have happened if you'd listened to me in the first place!" I shouted back, he glared at me…I'd done it now.

"I am the master and you are the slave. Your words mean nothing to me, therefore this mess is all your fault and you will be punished." He turned and walked away. When he was gone I looked back over at the shack Al was in, I could see him looking out the hole in the wall. I'd greatly hoped he hadn't seen everything that happened, he didn't need to see me like this, not now.

I sorely lifted up my left hand and spelt out 'I'm sorry' in sign language. I didn't know the actual sign for that phrase but sense I'd shown Al the alphabet I was sure he knew what I was saying. Resting my arm down again I looked at the ground with a sinking spirit. Things just kept getting worse, I wasn't sure what to do…then a thought crossed my mind.

That woman, she'd been at the masters house, I had to find out why. She'd helped me before, and we had started that plan. Maybe by her coming here was a sign, was she still going to help me if she knew about Al? I had to find her again, I had to get Alphonse out of this place, and I have to help get my fellow Amestrians out of this country. It was odd, the more I get hurt, the more the thought, need, to escape seemed to bubble to the surface of my thoughts. It was going to end, it had too.

-To Be Continued-

T.T Awh…I ran out of mojo (for the dumbest reason I just thought of Austin Powers). Heh, yeah…I've said scarier things after staying up till four thirty Saturday night watching movies! W00t! But anyway…(sigh) oh darn, I made Ed save the sorry blankety, blank. Maybe Mel-chan (see…that just sounds better then the one I came up with) will kill him in the next chapter…slowly…very, very, slowly… (Creepy shadows and lighting). 3

_**Heh, you and the reviewers are sure keen on getting the guy killed off, aren't you? Hehe…I honestly have no idea how the story will turn out. My stories usually write themselves, so I don't know what's going to happen from one chapter to the next, but we'll see I guess. Your chapter was awesome, by the way. You really handled that sign language bit well! I'm impressed!**_

_**Anyway, please leave us some reviews, so that I can get the motivation I need to update, okay? It really does make a difference in the motivational level, believe it or not. Thanks a bunch, and hope to see you back here soon!**_


	7. Chapter 7

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Okay, I'm using my brother's computer again, so let's see if I can get the HTML right this time, since the dumb thing doesn't like his browser, for some reason. I honestly don't know why it doesn't though, it's a perfectly good browser:(

Anyway, I finally got another chapter written for this story. Yeah! HEHEHEHEHE! Okay, yeah, whatever. Hope you like it.

Oh, and another thing, as soon as I submit this chapter, I'm going to go and turn on anonymous reviews, because I'm just so darn curious about how many reviews I'm actually missing on my stories when I don't allow them. Please, readers, please, please, please don't abuse the priveledge. I'm really putting my neck out on the line here. No flames, okay? Constructive criticism is fine, I can take that, but no flames. Those of you who just want to flame because Ed keeps getting hurt shouldn't read my stories, because I don't protect the protagonist, no matter how much I like him. (That's actually why my stories are so popular. They have a PLOT, more or less.) I don't write a lot of fluff, so if that's what you're looking for, it won't do you any good to look here. This story in particular has a lot of angst in it. Definitely not fluff. Please don't flame me for that.

Disclaimer: Neither one of us owns Ed yet, but we're still trying. Ever tried to catch a greased pig? Ed's even harder to catch than that! (No, don't even go there.)

I tossed around on the tattered blankets that were all I was allowed to use as a cot in the shack. My master kept extending my time because I kept doing things to make him angry. I didn't intend to, but I did it anyway. I guess that's just my nature; trouble always finds me.

I couldn't sleep. Too much had been happening lately. I had to get Al out of here. I had to save Amestris. I had to get my auto-mail repaired so that I could use alchemy. I sighed. How was I supposed to do any of those things? Even the last thing, getting my auto-mail repaired, which should have been the easiest thing on the list was just as hard as the others, since there were no auto-mail mechanics in Drachma.

I sat up. It was no use trying to sleep when I obviously couldn't. The girl that had been here a few days before was back at her old post now, so I was all alone in the shack. I had no one to talk to, not like it was easy to talk anyway, since I couldn't hear what they were saying, nor could I see their face in the dark to read their lips. I thought that I might just as well take a walk and sort my thoughts out. Maybe that would help.

I walked aimlessly for several minutes, not really caring which direction I was going, when I found myself at my master's house. I couldn't say why I had walked that way, but I just shrugged and went up to the door. He always left it locked at night, but I just had a strange feeling that I should try the door anyway. I did so, and strangely enough, it opened. That was unusual. He must've gotten careless from all the events of the past few days frustrating him so much.

I stepped into the house. Stillness, complete stillness. Not a movement anywhere. This could be a good opportunity for me if I knew what to look for. I quietly crept through the hallways, and soon found myself in the master's den. He worked on all his paperwork here. Anything interesting that I would want to know would most likely be kept here.

I quietly shut the door to keep out any noise and light, and then lit a candle. Candles didn't give off as much light as electric bulbs, so I thought that it would be easier to conceal my presence there with the use of a candle. I carefully set the candle on the desk, and then began pawing through the various pieces of paperwork on and around it.

I was ruffling through a bunch of papers when my eyes happened to fall upon one that had my name on it. I pulled it out from the pile and began to read it. My jaw dropped open in shock. It was a correspondence letter to my master trying to convince him to sell me to whoever it was that wrote this letter. Who would want to buy me, anyway? I was a terrible slave.

I turned over the piece of paper to look for the signature. It was a woman's name. Maybe it was the woman from...that day, the woman I had met in the marketplace. If she was trying to buy me, then that would make sense, but I wasn't about to go without Al. How would I be able to explain that to her? How could I even find her for that matter to discuss it with her?

I set the papers back down and looked straight up in front of me. There was no reason why I couldn't just leave right now and go find that secret hideout that she and that other man had shown me. Sure, it was the middle of the night, but if they really were a secret operation helping slaves to freedom, then surely they expected middle-of-the-night occurrences such as this. This was really the only time I could get away.

I quickly put the papers back in the way they were before I'd disturbed them, and then blew out the candle. Then, I quietly left the way I had come.

I returned to the shack, grabbed my cloak, and snuck my way off of the plantation. I soon found the same square I had been in just a few weeks before when all this started occurring. Now if I could just find that alleyway...yes, there it was. I turned down it and soon came to the same door I had stood before at that time. I hoped that the code knock was the same.

I walked up to it and knocked three times hard and two times soft. Then I waited...and waited...and waited. Did anybody hear? Was anybody there? Was that even the right knock? I could only wait and find out.

Finally, the door opened cautiously, and I peered in at the same burly man that had opened the door the last time. I couldn't tell what he said, if he said anything, but I did catch his inquisitive look, so I flashed my auto-mail before him, what was left of it anyway, so that he would catch on that I was an Amestrian. A look of understanding passed over him, and he let me come in.

He quickly ushered me into the house, and then closed and bolted the door behind me. I looked around to make sure that the coast was clear, and then I took off my cloak. He didn't seem as surprised this time about how I looked, but I guessed that he was used to the idea of me now. He just seemed a bit surprised that I had actually shown up again.

He walked over to me, and said something that I didn't quite catch, but I guessed that he was asking me what I was doing there. So, I spoke up and told him my business. He nodded and gestured for me to follow him.

I followed him down the hall that I had walked down last time I was here and was led into a room where I saw the woman I had met previously sitting at a desk writing something. I cleared my throat. She looked up and smiled. She mouthed something, which of course, I didn't quite catch because I wasn't that great of a lip reader, but I guessed that she was asking me what she could do for me.

So, I told her the whole story of what had happened the past few days. She frowned, turned to look at her paperwork, and then turned to look back at me, and then asked, "How is it that you understand me so well if you're deaf?" I explained to her that half of the time I could read her lips, and the other half of the time, I just guessed, and I could still talk because I had always known how to talk and I wasn't ever going to forget that. I just couldn't hear myself speak, so if I was talking too loud, I was sorry for that.

She nodded and turned to look back at her papers. She mumbled something, and then noticing that she didn't get a response from me, looked back up at me and repeated the same thing she had asked. "So, you won't leave unless we save your little brother too?"

I nodded. "He's too sick and weak to be left there. He won't live long if we don't get him out of there soon."

"But I'm having a hard enough time convincing him to give you up," she said, "How will I be able to convince him to give up your little brother too?"

I was a bit surprised that my master would actually have a hard time considering giving me up, since he seemed to hate my guts. I shrugged and said, "Well, he uses my little brother to manipulate me. Maybe you could convince him that you need my little brother for that very same reason."

She sighed and rubbed her eyebrows. If she said anything after that, I didn't catch it. I stood there for a moment, waiting to see if she was going to say anything else, but since she didn't say anything, I turned to leave.

I was walking back down the hall, when I happened to see a boy that appeared to be about my age, but considerably taller, looking at me. He got a somewhat shocked look on his face, and then turned and ran the other way. I called after him, but he didn't stop, so I ran and started chasing him. What was his problem anyway?

Apparently, I knew this building a little bit better than he did, because he soon got himself trapped in a corner. I walked in to him, demanding, "What's the matter with you? Why are you running from me?"

His only response was to point a shaky finger at me and say, "You're...You're him!"

My eyes opened wide. "I'm who?" Suddenly, it was like I heard voices flash through my head as memories returned to me.

i "My brother has visions...something Elric..." /i

A look of understanding dawned on my face. "You're...You're her brother, aren't you?" This was his turn to ask who, so I proceeded to explain about the girl I had met just a few days prior. "So," I said as I stepped closer to him, "Do you really have visions?"

The boy wouldn't say anything, but just gulped and nodded. "Then please," I pleaded, "Please tell me all that you can. I need all the help I can get to save Amestris."

The boy cast his eyes to the ground and wouldn't speak for several moments. Finally, he looked back up at me, and said, "Are you sure you want to know?"

I hesitated for a moment before I nodded in response. Whatever he said, I could take it. I had handled some very difficult things in the past, and I was sure that I could handle them all over again if I had to. I would sacrifice anything to save Amestris. "Yes," I said, "Tell me what you know."

**__**

There's the chapter, hope you liked it. Please review, but be nice, okay? I'm going out on the limb by allowing anonymous reviews for once, so the least you could do is be nice to me. Like I said, constructive criticism is okay, I can take it, just no flames. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you around again soon!


	8. Chapter 8

If this is late…I'm sorry! This last week was somewhat hectic, we were doing scheduling for next years classes and I signed up for a Duel Enrollment where I take a college level class, I'm taking another art class (yey!). ACTs are coming up soon too (cry), and my birthday is this Friday (yey! FullMetal Marathon!)…17 baby oh yeah! Ok, anyway here's the next chapter! Lobved the last one, that was cool…

_**What? An FMA marathon and I'm not invited! Waah! Heh, I suppose that it would help though if I lived closer to you…and if you knew me in person, hehehe.**_

_**Disclaimer: We don't own FullMetal Alchemist. What can I say today to make you read the disclaimer…um, I don't know, I'm short on ideas. No, wait, I'M NOT SHORT!**_

The boy looked around biting his lower lip slightly. He then motioned for me to sit down; I did so and waited for him to speak again. Before he said anything though, I realized that he might not know that I couldn't hear,

"You're going to have to speak slowly, I can't hear very well." I said. The boy gave me an unreadable look then sighed,

"I know, it was apart of my vision."

I wasn't sure what to say to this, so this kid knew that I was going to go deaf?

"You were going to tell me how to save Amestris?" I reminded. He just nodded and said slowly,

"You will be able to save Amestris and you'll see loved ones again."

"That's great! How!" I said a bit overly enthusiastic, the boy just held his hand up and lowered it indicating I said that kind of loud and should lower my voice, "Sorry."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up too soon, it was a bit fuzzy, but I saw it. The path to this future is troublesome, you have to make a choice." He said. I looked at him questioningly wondering what kind of choice I had to make.

"So, if I want to save Amestris, all I have to do is make a choice?" I asked.

"Well, with that choice a series of events will then lead to the future." He replied.

"What is it?" I asked. This time the boy didn't look me in the eye, he had an expression on his face that clearly said that if he did such a thing would mean his end. He then took a shaky breath and asked,

"You're willing to do anything, give anything up, to save Amestris?"

"Yes…" I said slowly, I was trying to see where he was going with this.

"You have two choices and they are; one, you…you are bought by the lady here leaving your brother behind and go on to saving your country. Or two, you try and get sold to the lady here with your brother, fail, and save nobody."

I must have had an odd look on my face because the boy seemed to turn sort of pale and started to inch away slowly, but I moved faster. With my good arm I grabbed the front of the boys shirt,

"You're lying…that can't be. There's no way I could leave Al behind…"

"I'm sorry…please, lower your voice," the boy stammered terrified, "But you have to choose, that's what I saw."

I let him go and scratched my head fiercely, this was insanely frustrating. How could I choose between saving Amestris and my brother? The choice should have been obvious, I'd never choose anything over Alphonse, but…there were so many other lives at stake. My frustration soon got the better of me and I threw a right hook into the wall leaving a sizable dent. The man from the door came running, he found me messaging my right fist and cursing lightly. He demanded what was going on.

"It's nothing…" I said flexing my hand about trying to get the pain to spread out and fade. He eyed the two of us for a moment then said to keep it down, that there were people sleeping. When he left I turned to the boy and asked,

"Could you be wrong? Isn't there any other way?"

"I've never been wrong before…" he said shakily. He seemed rather traumatized by my reaction, I sighed and shook my head placing my hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you…" he looked up at me slightly shocked, "You have quite a gift, don't look down on it ok. Oh and don't worry about your little sister, I'll look out for her as long as I can, ok." I then turned and started down the hall towards the door. The boy ran up to me and tapped me on the shoulder; I turned around and looked at him questioningly.

"Thank you, FullMetal Alchemist." He said, "You know, just because I've never been wrong, doesn't mean it isn't possible. You're known for turning things in your favor, maybe you could do it again and save everyone." The boy then turned and ran off, I stood there for a moment and pondered. It seemed like such a long time since somebody had called me 'FullMetal Alchemist', I couldn't help but smile at this. Not to mention the small ray of hope made for a nice thought on the walk back to the plantation.

It was almost morning by the time I got back, there was a small mishap though with some of the dogs bought to make sure none of the slaves tried to run away. They'd for some dumb reason decided to attack me upon my return. I had tripped and one of them had got hold of my leg, luckily it was my left so I wasn't hurt. Recovering, I managed to out run them by making a mad dash for the closest building I could find, the new slave shack.

Slamming the door behind me I paused to catch my breath, that proved to be slightly harder then I'd hoped. I slid down the door and flopped on the dirt floor breathing heavily, my heart still racing. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back trying to steady my breathing, somebody had walked over and sat down next to me but I was too tired to realize who it was. They put an arm around my shoulder letting my head slip onto their shoulder as I slid off to sleep.

The next morning I woke with a start, looking around franticly temporarily not knowing where I was. Finally my gaze fell on someone sleeping next to me, it was Alphonse. He was sleeping with his back against the door and his left arm around my shoulder, his breathing was somewhat irregular and he looked an off white pale color. The choice I had to make cropped up in my mind again, I sat there just watching him sleep for what seemed like hours. Finally, I sighed and turned slightly to peek out of the small hole in the wall.

It had to be nearly midmorning by the look of it, I hoped my master was still sleeping, it was unlikely but I was in a fairly good mood. I then turned and gently lifted Al's arm off my shoulder and carried, more half drag half carry, him back to his little spot in the shack. After I got him situated I made for the door and left, the sun glared down at me and my eyes hurt from the sudden light change. The sun had been glaring in my eyes so I didn't see my master storming up to me, when I realized what was happening it was too late. He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and darn near dragged me into the house.

He let go the moment we got to his den; he stormed behind his desk and sat roughly down on the chair. He just glared at me for a moment then asked slowly,

"Do you know what I have here?"

I had a rather sinking feeling in my stomach, had he noticed somebody had been in here last night? I didn't want to find out so I just shook my head no, my master glared at me again.

"Somebody wants to buy you, though I can't see why anybody would want something as useless as you." My master then started shifting through some more papers, "It would also seem that recently, the same person who wants to buy you, also wants to purchase your younger brother. Interesting don't you think?" he said the last bit in a rather accusing manner that I tried my best to ignore. He then set the papers down again and looked at me.

"I wonder what kind of big brother you are, maybe I should just turn down the offer for your brother and just sell them you. He's not completely useless after all, besides, I just spent a hefty price for him and those other ones."

I didn't say anything, my throat had gone desert dry, and even if I had wanted to speak it would have been impossible. Was it now that I had to make the choice? It was so soon, I couldn't possibly pick one now, and I was desperately hoping something would distract my master and make him temporarily forget about all this. That's when the mistress walked in, she seemed rather flustered about something.

"Dear, you need to do something about that child. You know the one, the little one that tried to run away not too long ago." She said.

"What is it this time?" he asked in a slightly irritated tone.

"She was caught stealing from the pantry…again."

"Fine, four lashes." My master stood up and started for the door, I had to do something. I knew who she was talking about, it was kind of hard to read her lips though considering she had this habit of not moving them that much when she was mad about something. I had to keep my promise to her brother, so I stepped in front of my master. He demanded to know what I was doing, so I said,

"I'll take her place…" I said. He raised a questioningly shocked eyebrow, "Considering, I won't be here for very much longer…" I added. It was very hard to say that, the dryness in my throat soon spread to my stomach giving it a sick and horrid feeling.

"So, this means you don't care if I only sell you and keep your younger brother? Heh, some older brother." He said, "Fine…"

"Make it five." Since I'd been facing my master, I didn't see my mistress say this. All I got was a rather nasty smirk from my master as he said,

"Alright dear…" he then added, "Oh and…we should make sure that little girl sees what happens when she causes mischief. What better way to get someone to do what you want, then to punish those around them for their mistakes."

"A…public…punishment?" I stuttered. My master just smirked even more which answered everything, "You can't…do that…" I muttered.

"Oh, but I can…" he sneered grabbing me by the scruff of the neck again and this time, literally dragging me out of the house and to the small courtyard. He ordered one of the other slaves to go fetch the little girl, they did so. She had a confused look on her face, she then spotted me and her eyes went wide.

"Edward?" she muttered. All I could really do was give her a semi-confident smile, but I could tell she didn't buy it, considering I didn't either. She then looked up as another one of the slaves led someone else next to her.

"No…" I muttered. My master turned me so I was facing him; he was sneering still as he said,

"When you say public, that means everybody."

I turned and looked at the little girl and now, Alphonse. He was looking at me questioningly, I couldn't look him in the eye, all I could do was look at the ground.

"It's time…"

I shut my eyes as everyone stepped back, my master let go of me and I slumped to my knees. They just seemed to give out on me, I really didn't care though, I wasn't going anywhere, at least not yet.

-To Be Continued-

Oh darn! I came up short! Sorta…I dunno…I thought this was a good end for a chapter…

(Sigh). Yes, flames are not nice…they burn…(eep! Bad pun!).

**_And I told you, I'M NOT SHORT! (Nobody listens to me. Pouts. Maybe they'd listen if I only left author notes on the chapters I authored...then again, maybe not.)_**


	9. Chapter 9

_**Sorry that it took me awhile to get this chapter up. I couldn't seem to find the time to type it up, but here it is, finally! Yeah! Hope that you like it, hehe.**_

_**Disclaimer: Neither of us own FullMetal Alchemist, though I think that if I keep writing all sorts of fanfics and buying all sorts of FMA merchandise, I might get to own FMA sooner or later. Why else do we buy all that stuff if it's not to try and own FMA? Oh…it's just an obsession, you say? Okay…you're obsessed, aren't you? What? No, I am not obsessed. I tell you, I'm not obsessed! Okay, maybe a little…**_

The confused expressions on the faces of that little girl and Al turned to looks of horror when it suddenly dawned upon them what was going on. I turned to see my master and saw him say, "This is what happens to those you care about when you disobey my orders." And then, turning to Al, he said, "You would be wise to remember that, young man."

He then raised the whip up over his head. I turned my face away. I didn't want to see it coming. It was only a few seconds before SMACK! The first lash hit. I cried out in pain. I hadn't thought it would hurt that bad, and I had three more to go of these? I knew that each one would hurt worse.

The second lash came and tears began rolling down my face. Two more, I told myself, there's only two more.

The third lash came and I felt my whole body pulsate with pain. This was terrible. I wasn't even sure if I could bear the last one.

The fourth lash came and I screamed a blood-curdling scream. It was extremely painful, like nothing I'd ever felt. I'd been whipped before, but never this hard. But, that was the last one, or so I thought. I hadn't realized that the mistress had changed it to five lashes instead of four.

The fifth one came down, and I screamed so hard that I dropped to the ground, not able to support my weight any longer. I always tried to be tough and not cry, but I couldn't avoid it that time. I was sobbing on the ground. While I couldn't hear Al's and the little girl's reactions, I could feel the tension in the air. I knew that it was hurting them worse than it was hurting me, as unbelievable as that sounded at that moment.

He let me lie there for what seemed like only a few seconds before he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me to my feet. He turned me around so that I would see his face, and then told me, "Go wash up, you're leaving today." He then promptly gave me a shove in the direction of the bathhouse.

Or at least, what we called the bathhouse. It was a shack where slaves washed up, and it wasn't very clean. I weakly nodded and then stumbled my way over to the bathhouse/shack. For the first time in I didn't know how long, I was so glad that we didn't have hot water. These wounds stung like nothing else, and hot water would have just aggravated them even worse.

I soon finished cleaning up my wounds, got dressed again in my rags, and then made my way over to my master's house where he was waiting for me. He directed a couple of his men to grab me and bind my hands behind my back. He knew that I wouldn't run away anyway, since I hated his guts, and wanted more than anything to be out from under his control, but he still liked to torture me with the idea of not being able to move my hands.

As soon as my hands were bound securely behind my back, he dragged me over to a nearby carriage and set me in it. I didn't pay much attention to the ride over. It didn't really matter to me. I was leaving Al behind. I had hoped that I was doing the right thing. I hoped I could find a way to save Al. I hoped.

Before long, we arrived at a house that I was not familiar with. I assumed that it was the lady's real house, and not the place where she hid out and took me to. She couldn't take the risk of her own house being discovered as a refuge for slaves, so I understood that.

I was rudely jerked off the cart and pushed up the long walkway toward the front door. She lived on a large plantation too, so naturally, I figured that she must have people to tend it, but were they slaves…or merely…servants? I doubted that she kept slaves. I just couldn't bring myself to think that.

I looked over and saw two people, obviously Amestrian, pruning some of the hedges. They looked up and saw me, waved at me, and smiled. Okay, so they couldn't be slaves if they were that happy. They were probably merely servants in her care, probably paid well for it too.

I nodded my head in their direction, but didn't return the smile, as I continued to walk up to the door. Finally, we reached the front entrance, and my master pounded on the door. The maid answered soon afterward, and we were escorted inside. This house seemed even more elaborate than my master's. I was in total shock.

My soon-to-be-new-mistress came walking out into the room. "Have you brought him?" she said.

"Here," he pushed me forward to her. She looked at me, but didn't smile.

"This is the alchemist kid, right?" she said.

"Yes," my master said dryly, "But remember that he can't do alchemy with that broken arm of his." He gestured to my auto-mail. "And I don't accept returns. Once he's yours, he's yours. I don't want him back."

Returns? I thought to myself, he's talking about me like I'm a piece of merchandise. That really was all I was to him, a piece of merchandise.

"Understood," said the woman, "I'll have one of my maids bring you your money." She clapped her hands and one of the maids brought out the previously mentioned money, and handed it to the man. He quickly counted it, grunted at the woman in what I interpreted as a sort of Thank You, and then headed out the door.

My new mistress turned to me and smiled for the first time since the master had come in. "Welcome to your new home, Edward," she said. Her smile quickly faded as she suddenly realized that I was still bound. "Oh, let me loosen that for you."

She quickly untied my hands and set me free. "It's hard to find auto-mail mechanics in Drachma," she said, "But we'll try to find some way to fix your arm. In the meantime, you have free run of the place, okay?" I nodded. She continued, "Just use common sense. I can't come and save your hide every time you get yourself in trouble. And definitely don't get yourself in trouble when you're not on my property. Do you understand? If I get caught and in trouble with the law, then I won't be able to help any of your people. You must be very careful about that."

"I understand," I said, rubbing my left wrist with what was left of my auto-mail arm. "I'll be careful to keep your secret safe."

"Thanks, I knew you'd understand," she said, flashing a smile my way. She turned to leave the room, and then stopped short, and turned to face me again. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get you your brother."

"Um…yeah, I…I know, it's okay…it's not your fault." I stopped for a moment, and then said, "I noticed some Amestrian people outside working on your hedges. I was just wondering…"

"Oh!" she chuckled, "Don't worry about them, I don't keep slaves. Those are some of the other Amestrian people I bought off of other slave masters. Whenever anyone, Amestrian or not, works for me, I pay them their fair share. Of course, when it involves Amestrian people, I usually have to pay them with some kind of barter system, since Drachman currency really isn't much use to them."

I chuckled. "No, I can't say it would be when they get chased out of the marketplace every time they get discovered."

She laughed at my little comment, and then said, "Would you like a tour of the house?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure, I guess."

"Okay, I'll call one of my servants. No, on second thought, I'll lead you myself." She grabbed my arm and led me in the direction of the nearest room. Never in my life had I imagined that there could be a mistress as kind as this one. I only wished Al were here. He deserved better than he had.

Al, I said to myself, Keep strong, I haven't given up on you. I will save you, somehow.

**_Hope that you liked that chapter. Please leave a review, and I'm sure that RR-Major-Ed-Pride will be happy to provide her chapter. (Just incase you guys aren't catching on, she writes all the even chapters. Yes, her style is so similar to mine that it's probably hard to tell them apart, but seriously…) I just thought it was hilarious when one of the reviewers mentioned her story "Hand in Hand" as sounding like "One Year", and then apologized for talking about another author, when she is co-authoring this story AND "Hand in Hand" was indeed inspired by "One Year"! Hehehehe…yeah, okay…yeah._**

_**Anyway, please review, and see you back here soon!**_


	10. Chapter 10

Whaa! That last chapter was so good! –Types up how the master died from choking on shrimp- (Cackles evilly). Just reading the first page made me cringe, which means it was very…VERY…good. Hmmm, how shall I go about the next chapter? I know!

Disclaimer: Keh, keh, keh, I just thought of an odd disclaimer! Ok here it is! –Locks Edward and Alphonse in a closet- We may not own you two but we can protect you from the cruel, mean world! –There's loud banging on the closet door and shouts of 'let us out!' and 'you're crazy!'- (Snickering)

The house and grounds were beautiful and calming, it was the complete opposite of my, now former, masters. It was a rather large two story building with window boxes in every other window, each box with a different mix of flowers. Spider vines clung to the walls and gave it a very old look, the lady smiled when she noticed my enthralled look. She then placed a hand on my shoulder indicating that she had to talk to me, I turned to see what she wanted.

"I'll show you to your living quarters now, it's just around that corner over there, in the court yard."

"You have a very nice home." I said turning back to look at the large house again. She then walked past me and gestured for me to follow, I did, we turned the corner into the courtyard and towards the servants living quarters. My jaw dropped, the courtyard was nearly covered in the spider vines and small patches of native flowers, in the center of the courtyard was a fountain. A sudden wave of guilt washed over me as I gazed pensively at the scene, I was here and Al was still there, with him.

The lady led me over to one of the small rooms that lined three of the walls that made up the courtyard. It was a small room but a considerable more comfortable then where I had to sleep before. There was a small bed with sheets and a summer blanket, in the far-left corner was a table and chair, to the right was a very small dresser with a wash bowl and pitcher sitting on top. I gazed around the room in a quandary.

"Is something the matter?" the lady asked, I hadn't heard her so I walked over to the wash bowl and water pitcher. She walked over and placed a concerned hand on my back, I retracted quickly wincing, I guess I was still sensitive after that morning.

"What has happened? Why did you…" she pulled the back of my shirt up, "Wh…what is this?" she asked with a very concerned look on her face.

"He was going to hurt that little girl," I muttered, "I made a promise to her brother I'd look out for her as long as I was there."

"Tsk…no wonder he said what he said back there." She grumbled, "Here, let me take you to the house, I can call a doctor from there."

"Thank you…but I think I'll stay here, if that's ok." I sighed, she nodded then made for the door, before she left though she added,

"The doctor should be here in an hour, you just rest here, it's been a long day." And she left. When she was gone I slinked over to the bed and sat down, the full weight of how horrid I felt finally sinking in. What was Al doing now? I wasn't able to see him before I left so…I slouched over, resting my elbow on my knee and my head in my hand. What to do? What was I to do now? My back twinged slightly as I sat there, perhaps that was the inner me telling me that I was being stupid. I knew what I had to do and that was to get Al away from that monster and free Amestris, it was that simple. A twinge again,

"Shut up…" I grumbled to myself, I lied down on my side now and was gazing lazily out the door into the courtyard, the fountain came to mind. It was a very nice fountain, a shame though that no water seemed to come out of it. A faint breeze passed through a small window in the back wall that looked out into a small back yard, with small plants growing here and there. It blew against my back providing a short relief from the, now continuous, twinging.

The wind blew again, this time carrying with it the sound of children laughing; I sat up and looked around for a quick second. I found it odd because I hadn't seen any children when I came in, though that didn't necessarily mean there weren't any. Shrugging, and deeply regretting doing so because that made the twinging start up again, I gently pulled my shirt off. It was a mildly warm day, now that I was able to pay attention to something like that, and lied back down on the bed, this time with my back to the door. I started to slip in and out of hazy dreams and nightmares, some of when Al and me were little others of the Drachman invasion.

An hour had passed sooner then I had expected. The lady, though now I should probably refer to her as my mistress, and a man walked in. The man was clearly the doctor cause he seemed to go straight to work by asking some questions. I wasn't listening, and even if I had wanted too I couldn't anyway, I had only gazed in their general direction when I saw their shadows on the far wall, then returned to gazing blankly at the wall in front of me. My mistress must have answered all the questions for me, which in a way I was grateful for, because now the doctor when on to examining the damage.

The doctor then tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention; he got it only because my back twinged, yet again, at his touch. He gestured that I turn over onto my stomach, I did so. He then started rummaging through his bag and pulled out some jars and containers.

"What are you doing?" I asked, more out of boredom then anything else. The doctor answered and my mistress repeated it to me slowly so I could read her lips. He was going to put some medication on the wounds, which were at that stage between sore and open too sore and starting to heal. Then he'd dress it properly so that there would be minimum scarring. The doctor put some medical gloves on then started to apply the medication. It was cold and oddly relaxing, though occasionally it would sting and I'd wince. Once all that was done, he wrapped me up in bandages and said I was good to go.

"You said he was this why when you bought him?" the doctor asked my mistress, she just nodded. The doctor shook his head and said, "I'm not for or against any of this but, it truly is amazing how cruel people can be to one another. We doctors see a lot of terrible things in our profession, dog bites, snakebites, getting a leg or arm broken from some accident. But if there is one thing that is the worst of all cases, it's seeing the end result of two humans fighting with each other."

He left after my mistress paid him, she then turned to me and sighed, she had a slightly less worried look on her face. I decided to try and fix that,

"Thanks…I'm fine now." I said.

"You're still worried about your brother aren't you?"

"Of course…I wouldn't be a very good big brother if I didn't." I shrugged, without any twinges or pains.

"We've got to get your arm fixed," she then said, "I'll have to search all over the place for an auto-mail mechanic."

She crossed her arms and left, I was just thinking, if only Winry were here. She'd be able to fix this up in no time flat, but I had no idea where she was, I didn't even know where Al was till my former master purchased him. My head nodded slightly as I started getting drowsy, resting my head in my hand again I tried to steady my thoughts.

I flopped over on my side, hand still set firmly over my face, this bed was nice…too nice…I turned over slowly and faced the wall. I had chosen, to save Amestris, wasn't that also Al? Lowering my hand I thought about it, why was it then I had to pick between the two? Perhaps I should talk with the boy again; he would probably know the answer to a question like that. Staring into the wall I started to drift off again, I was here now; this was the first step. I was going to save Amestris, and hopefully Alphonse as well, I just hope I made the right choice.

Phooey, that was kinda short wasn't it? I'm sorry, I can't blame it on being lazy or procrastinating either…darn there goes my two most useful scapegoats. (Sigh) I was going for a slightly lighter…thing…for this chapter (still deeply traumatized by last chapter…in a good way! –Ed and Al are still in my closet…safe and sound-). Well, Mel-chan you're up! (The reviews were so nice…ahhh, motivation!)

_**Oh my, my chapter was that…traumatizing? I had no idea! I thought that was one of my lesser chapters, but what do I know? I wrote the chapter for goodness' sake! (A writer never knows whether their own work is good or not, hehe.) I'm glad that you liked it though. I'll try to have the next chapter up soon.**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Hey, everyone! I'm sorry that it's taken me so darn long to update this story! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I just couldn't seem to get enough inspiration, plus I didn't have time to get it, since my life has been so hectic lately. Sigh. Oh well, it's updated now, so I hope that you all enjoy. Let me know if the sign language talk is confusing or not. That's the way that sign language grammar really is laid out. That's why I wrote it like that. Heh.**_

_**Disclaimer: Umm…the little leprechauns that follow me everywhere I go are telling me to say that I own FullMetal Alchemist. Now, I just told two lies. First, I don't own FullMetal Alchemist, and second, I don't have little leprechauns following me all over the place. At least, I don't think I do. (Glances around nervously)**_

"How-you-today-question?" signed my new mistress as she stepped into the room.

"Fine-Thanks-You?" I responded back. I had to modify a lot of the signs, since many of them required two hands to do them properly, and I only had one hand, though I had two arms that I could use. Sign language is flexible like that though.

"Same-same," she signed.

I sighed and looked at her, not sure if I even wanted to say anything else. She had been very supportive in getting me a sign language instructor, as well as learning the language itself. I was actually starting to get good at it, even though I still had a lot of vocabulary to learn. It was surprising how quickly this language could be learned.

"I-find-mechanic-maybe." She signed to me. I jumped. I hadn't expected that. She'd found an auto-mail mechanic?

"You-find-mechanic-question? Where? Who?" I wanted to ask more questions, but I realized that I needed to slow down and give her time to answer the ones I had asked.

"I-find-girl-slave. I-try-buy-her. Don't-know-what-happen-yet."

So, she'd found a girl who was a mechanic, and was trying to buy her. I understood that. That made sense. I hoped that she would succeed.

"Understand-I. Good-luck."

"Thank-you. See-you-later."

"See-you-later."

I watched her leave the room, and then flopped back down onto my bed. My head was spinning. Hopefully, I'd be able to use my auto-mail again soon. That would allow me to use alchemy, which would be a great help in trying to save Amestris. I still didn't know how I planned to accomplish such a large task, but I knew that not many people were up to the job, and someone had to do it. It might as well be me.

I closed my eyes and started humming. I couldn't hear what I was humming, but I could imagine it in my head. It's strange what one can do in spite of a disability. Just randomly, I began piecing words together. Somehow, it made me feel better about what I was doing.

_Rise again. We will rise again.  
__So put away your sorrow.  
__Look forward to tomorrow.  
__There's no need to worry, just believe.  
__That we will rise again.  
__Open our eyes again.  
__We'll show them they're mistaken,  
__That we are not forsaken.  
__They don't know our spirit.  
__We will rise again._

I rolled over onto my side, and continued babbling to myself, sometimes out loud, sometimes just randomly moving my hands, since that was just as much speech to me as talking was.

"Al, will I be able to save you when we rise again? Did I do the right thing? Did I make the right choice? How are you doing?"

As much as I tried, I couldn't get answers to any of these questions, not like there were answers to them in the first place. I clamped my eyes shut hard to force the tears that had been trying to get out to actually fall out of my eyes, and quit stinging me, and then I pushed myself up to a sitting position with my one good arm.

I looked around the room. There was nothing for me to do in here, so I figured that I might as well change my surroundings. This room just made me think too much of Al, and I needed to distract myself for a while.

I meandered around outside for awhile, just enjoying the landscape on this lady's plantation. She really enjoyed nature apparently, because there was a lot of it. It was unbelievable how many trees and shrubs she had around. My former master hadn't had a lot of trees and shrubs because they took up valuable space that could be used for producing crops.

Just then, I felt someone small run up behind me. It's strange what your other senses will do when you lose one of your normal ones. I turned around to see who it was, and gasped in surprise as I realized that it was Al!

"Al!" I yelled, "What are you doing here?"

He smiled a weak little smile at me. He still looked quite sickly, still wore tattered rags, and definitely didn't look like he had been purchased by my new mistress. He raised his hands and looked at me.

"I-not-slave-new-anymore. Master-make-me-go-to-market. I-come-here-see-you." Wow. Apparently he'd been practicing too. I was quite impressed, but I didn't need to tell him so, because my face clearly showed it.

"I-very-happy-see-you-Al. You-alright-me-happy. Master-notice-if-you-gone-long-will."

"Yes. I-know," he signed back. "I-get-back-before-he-know. How-life-here?"

I looked down at the ground for a moment. I felt guilty. Poor Al had to live in that dump of a place with a cruel master, and I got treated like a human being. Should I tell Al that? Yeah, he probably would feel better knowing that I was being treated well.

"Life-here-good. Mistress-treat-us-all-well. She-hire-teacher-for-learn-sign. She-try-find-mechanic. Maybe-she-find."

Al nodded his understanding, and his smile grew wider. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the quality of my existence. I just wished that he could be here, living with me as well.

"I-miss-you-Al. I-love-you."

"I-love-you-Brother," he signed back. Before we were even aware of it, we were both hugging each other and crying on each other's shoulders. Time seemed to stand still for that moment, and I definitely did not want this point in time to pass. I wanted to stay with Al forever, but life doesn't work that way. Al had to get back to the plantation before his master noticed that he'd been gone too long.

I felt some footsteps come up to the two of us. I looked up to see my mistress walking up to me, smiling. "Is-this-little-brother-your-question?" I nodded. She smiled and walked up to him, looking into his face. "Your master doesn't know that you're here, does he?"

Al shook his head. My mistress sort of snorted in response. Heh, I guess that she held a bit of distain for my former master as well as we did. "Well, you need to get back there before he discovers that you're gone. Would you like a ride home?"

Al got a surprised expression on his face, and looked between my mistress and myself for a few moments, before finally nodding that yes, he'd like that. My mistress then gestured for us to follow her, so we all went and piled into her carriage, and rode off.

I was dreading seeing that horrible place again, but I figured that it was worth the ride to be with Al as long as I could. I turned to face him. "Al-I'm-sorry."

"For-what?"

"Because-I-not-succeed-get-you-bought-by-mistress-my."

He waved his hand at me in a dismissive manner. I didn't even need to know sign language to know that he meant "Don't worry about it". I waited to see if he would say anything else. He must've caught onto that, because he then signed, "You-do-what-you-have-to. I-trust-you. Don't-worry-about-me."

I smiled and mouthed the word, "Thanks" out loud. It had been awhile since I'd spoken, since I only did so a few times a day now, so it felt a little bit weird to suddenly speak again. It felt right for the moment though. That moment had called for an auditory confirmation.

It seemed like barely any time had passed before we were finally near enough to the plantation where Al lived to drop him off, since we didn't want his master to see him with us. The consequences might be severe if that occurred. Al reluctantly stepped down out of the carriage, holding onto my hand for leverage. He gave my hand a gentle squeeze before he let go, and then turned around and flashed an "I love you" sign at me, which I readily returned.

My mistress slapped the reigns to get the horses moving again, and I leaned back into my seat and sighed. I was so happy to know that Al was alive and well…well, as well as could be expected since he was so sickly, and that he held no hard feelings against me. But I was so sad to see him go. I wanted more than anything else to be near him.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face my mistress who was staring intently at me. "I admire the love and devotion you brothers share with each other," she said out loud. She couldn't very well sign, since she was holding the reigns, but I had become a little bit better at reading lips recently, so it wasn't as hard as it used to be, though I still preferred sign language when I got the chance to use it.

"You two have such a bond. I pity the man who tries to break that bond." I gave a little laugh in response. Yes, she understood the situation alright. When I finally rose to power, I certainly wasn't going to let my former master and Al's current master slip away without paying for his sins. I almost pitied him too. I know my rage.

I didn't respond to her right then. I had too much on my mind. So, I just stifled a yawn, leaned back into my seat, and after a bit of effort to calm my racing mind, I finally fell asleep.

_**Hope you liked that chapter. Please review, so that RR-Major-Ed-Pride can give you an update!**_


	12. Chapter 12

Aw...that was a nice chapter, n.n. So, you've got leprechauns huh?

Do they steal your left sock late at night like the invisible elves?

Well anyway, I've been having computer trouble, as in the library

computers are being evil and not reading my disk. Then saying that the disk has to be formatted and to do so would mean losing everything on the disk, and I can't have that, I've got like four chapters of updates, ok I had five but I lost the disk with that chapter on it T.T. Ack! Now my laptop is being cruel! I found the Risembool Ranger fight song and saved it and now it won't open! (Foams at mouth and drops on the floor in some sort of seizure like fit)

Well that's my rant for the moment! Sorry if this was late! I do try to keep on top of things. Oh, part of this chapter will be done up not in Ed's point of view, I wasn't sure how else to express it.

**_That's okay, I understand. I haven't had much inspiration to update many of my stories lately either. Take as long as you need to. (Sorry this took so long to get uploaded. She sent it as e-mail text, which requires a lot of editing because it garbles it, and I kept putting it off to do later, since it takes about a half an hour to fix. Sigh. Oh well, it's up now._**

And no, the leprecauns don't steal my socks or anything else. I know where my stuff is most of the time, and I can find it easier when my house is a mess than when it's clean. Go figure. Enjoy the story, everyone!

That night, I sat on my bed with my back against the wall, it was very nice considering it had gotten quite hot that afternoon. My thoughts, once again, wondered back to how Al was doing, even with his reassurance I just couldn't stomach the fact that I let him return to that place.

It wasn't long after that I started feeling my eyes grow heavy and I kept nodding off, deciding it was time to sleep, I slid down and got under a sheet, it wasn't long before I drifted off into a deep sleep.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been sleeping but it was soon interrupted by a disturbing dream. Trying to push it out of my thoughts, I pulled the covers closer and turned onto my side, it didn't help much.

-Edward's Dream-

Edward found himself standing on the porch of the Rockbell residence, but his vision was like that of being trapped in his own body, he could see everything going on around him but he couldn't consciously do anything. He glanced around for a moment before sighing and looking down at his right hand. The sound of running footsteps could be heard coming from inside the house, he turned to see Alphonse come bounding out.

"There you are brother!"

"Hey, Al."

"You want to go visit mom with me?"

Edward put his hands in the pockets of the black sweat pants he was

wearing; he smiled and nodded his head,

"Sure, let's go." He started down the steps; Al following close

behind, they made their way down the beaten dirt path. The Elric

brothers walked in silence for a little while until finally Al stopped, Ed turned and looked at his brother questioningly.

"Brother, what do you think about the military's dealing with

Drachma?"

"Hm? Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that, I don't really agree with what they're

doing. Something bad might happen because the military is taking

advantage of that country."

"Wow Al, I didn't know you felt that way about it." Ed replied,

"It is true that the military really should be careful about what

they're doing, I don't think Amestris can handle another large scale war, not after everything that's happened."

"Yeah," Al muttered, he still looked kind of worried so Ed

walked over and tousled his hair.

"Don't worry about it Al, I'm sure it won't come to that."

He turned and started walking again; Al ran and caught up with him. It took them about ten more minutes before they reached the cemetery; they found their mother's grave and set some flowers down in front of it.

Alphonse sat down and wrapped his arms around his knees like he usually does, he smiled lightly and said,

"Hi mom."

The two brothers stayed there for about an hour before deciding to

head back, once again they were silent most of the walk, this time it was Ed's turn to say something,

"Hey Al, just so you know, I'm no longer leashed to the military.

You don't have to worry about that."



"I know that Ed." Al smiled, "Come on, I heard were having stew

for supper." The younger Elric suddenly made a mad dash down the

path; Ed laughed and raced after him. When Ed caught up with Al he noticed his brother had stopped suddenly, they were still a good ways away but Al had stopped and was looking at something. Edward stopped and put his hand on Al's shoulder asking,

"Al, what is it?"

"Look!" Al pointed, Ed looked up and his eyes went wide. Soldiers in Drachman uniforms where marching into Risembool.

"That can't be...how did..." Both brothers sped down the path

for the Rockbells, they made it with just barely enough time to shut the door and find Winry and Pinako. There was a loud knocking on the door, Winry turned and said,

"Who could be at the door?"

"Winry get away from the door!" Ed grabbed her by the arm and

pulled her away. Winry pulled her arm out of his grip and demanded,

"What? Edward what are you doing?"



"Th-the Drachman Army is out there."

"What!"



"I have no idea how this happened, but whatever you do, don't

answer the door." Ed said, Winry though frowned.

"But, wouldn't it just be smarter to see what it is they want? It

would be smarter to play it safe."



"But..."

"Don't worry ok." Winry walked over to the door and slowly

opened it, "Yes?"

Two Drachman solders where standing at the front door, they glared

down at Winry before barging right in. The paused in the living room before saying,

"Your country is being invaded, due to the incompetence of your own

military it was a simple task. All Amestrians must report to Central immediately, if you decide to resist, we have orders to shoot any and all resisters, do you understand?" The man's accent was very obvious and it was kind of hard to make out what he was saying, but they got the idea.

"Ed? What should we do?" Al whispered.

I've got an idea Al, just go along with it ok." Ed whispered

back, Al nodded and followed the solders and the others out of the house.

Just outside about thirty more Drachman solders had shown up, they were given orders to search the house, as they stormed in, Ed took this opportunity to clap his hands and transmute his arm blade. With a quick turn of the wrist he was able to cut the links between the handcuffs he'd been put in. Al saw this as the time to act so he too clapped his hands, only he touched the ground causing a large pillar of earth to rise up and slam into the two solders that had come into the house.

"Ha." Al smiled, Ed rushed over and cut the handcuffs on him too.

"Come on Al, they took Winry and Granny over there." Ed and Al

started for the house; they were about half way when, out of nowhere, there was a blinding flash of light.

-End of Dream-

I jolted awake and was lying on the cold, dusty ground. Heart racing and cold sweat running down the side of my face, I glanced around slowly, it was light out, I estimated it was about eight in the morning.

Taking a moment to steady my breathing, I straightened myself out and leaned against the side of the bed, it was just at that moment that my mistress walked in. She paused then signed,

"Are-you-ok-question?"

"Fine," I signed back, she had a skeptical look on her face so I

signed "fine" again, but more defensively.

"May-get-reply-maybe-today."

I just gave an acknowledging nod and signed, "Understand-I."

She smiled, nodded, and left, I sighed and hoisted myself up. With

that dream still fresh in my memory, I slowly walked over to the small dresser and pulled out some clothes. To say the least, they were not the best, but it was mainly to keep the suspicion levels low. I didn't really mind though since they were a lot better then what I used to have.

After I finished getting dressed, I made my way out into the courtyard and over to the fountain, the water sure had a calming effect, that and I'd taken on the job of watering the plants. It wasn't hard work, it just took some time to do, and I actually kind of enjoy walking around the whole place and seeing all the different plants.

It was about mid-afternoon when I'd gotten a message from my

mistress that the person who owns the girl mechanic had agreed to a meeting, it was a sort of protocol where the two owners would meet and examine the "property". The message also said that I could come along too if I'd wanted too, well of course I want too! I finished up watering the last of the plants and put away the equipment, then made my way to the front gate where she was waiting in the carriage. I hopped in and we set off for town.

We arrived in town about twenty minutes later; we had to stop at a few places first, and pulled up next to a restaurant. Parking the carriage, we both got down and found a table, it was a nice open-air restaurant so it would be easy to spot them when they arrived. Now I had two things on my mind, one being that dream and the other on the hopes that this meeting will prove to be a success. We were waiting for about another thirty minutes before my mistress stood up and quickly signed that I should also.

I got up and quickly moved to where I was standing just behind

my mistress's chair. It was a custom that the servant stand behind the master, we both disliked the custom very much. I looked up quickly to see who it was she had been indicating and saw a middle aged man, about lower first class at least, with short dark hair walking towards us. I frowned slightly seeing that he appeared to be alone, I cast a quick glance towards my mistress but she seemed to notice as well.

I looked up again at the man with a slightly down cast expression,

this didn't seem to be going in the direction I was hoping. Something then caught my eye, a faint flick of yellow seemed to come from behind him, I took an involuntary step forward but was quickly stopped by my mistress's outstretched arm. A quick glance down at her and the look she was giving me said not to do anything stupid. Naturally I wouldn't, so I gave a small nod and looked up again. I could feel my heart and mind racing again, was it really her?

-To Be Continued-

Wow, you know I actually thought of how to end this chapter first, I was sitting here watching my brother play Medal of Honor Frontline and

there it was! sigh!I lobve it when that happens. Though normally it

happens for opening things...hmmm...perhaps it has something to do with foam loss for I have ended it on a cliffie of doom! (Crazy laugh)

Well anywhozles! Review and you get ta see Mel-chan use her mad alchemy skilz ta transmute an update! Cha!


	13. Chapter 13

**_Phew! I finally got a bit of inspiration last night, and I wrote this chapter up. Heh, yes, I know, I'm kind of weird...but wait, does that surprise you? It shouldn't if you're an avid follower of my fics, heh._**

And no, I don't have leprecauns...at least, I don't think so...nope, don't have them. Well...my socks do disappear all the time...but I don't have leprecauns!

Ed: How do you know that you don't have them? Everything is real, after all.

Me: Are you saying that I do have leprecauns?

Ed: Reality is what you make of it.

Me: Oh, what do you know? (Grabs a pillow and throws it at Ed, only to have it pass through him and hit the wall.)

Okay, that was random. I think that only Sakura-chan will even get it, hehe. (Waves to Sakura-chan) No, Sakura, I didn't throw an actual pillow, hehe, I just knew you were going to ask that. (Snicker)

Disclaimer: I own myself, does that count? Oh wait...I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist...so I guess it doesn't. Sigh. Oh well. Enjoy the story anyway.

I placed my hand on the back of the chair that my mistress was sitting in and gripped it until it started to hurt. That...couldn't be...it just couldn't be her...could it? I unconsciously stood up on my tiptoes to get a better look as I eagerly waited for them to get close enough to see. My mistress noticed this, and gently placed her arm across my chest to warn me to calm down. I took the hint and relaxed my stance, but kept my gaze fixed upon the girl.

Finally, the man arrived at the table and sat down across from my mistress, leaving the girl to stand behind him...which gave me a better chance to see her. Our eyes locked and my jaw dropped wide open, as I took an unconscious step towards her. Again, I felt my mistress place her arm across my chest. I once again took the hint and stepped back, never taking my eyes off of the girl before me.

I waited until her master wasn't looking in my direction, and then I silently mouthed the word, "Winry" to the girl. I just had to see if it was indeed the person I thought it was. A timid smile spread across her face for a second, though it vanished as soon as my mistress looked up. That was enough to convince me though. It was her...Winry.

I stared at her without blinking it seemed for several minutes straight. I just couldn't believe that I was finally seeing her again. It was too unreal. Somehow, I was afraid that if I took my eyes off of her, even for a second, that she would just fade from my sight forever. Her eyes seemed to plead with me to take her with me. I finally turned my head away. It hurt too much to look into those pain-filled pleading eyes.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally noticed my mistress and her master stand up and shake hands. Had the transaction taken place, or was everything simply going back to the way it was? I watched with bated breath as the man nodded to my mistress, and then turned around...and left...without Winry. She'd succeeded? My mistress had succeeded?

I turned to look at my mistress. She was now looking at me, and was smiling. She raised her hands to sign to me. "I-lucky-this-time. Man-want-sell. I-come-buy. Finish. Easy."

I nodded my understanding at her, but didn't sign anything back. I was still too spellbound by the whole incident to think straight, so my mistress turned her attention to Winry. "So...miss...?"

"Winry, Ma'am," said Winry with an overly zealous bow in addition to her words. Obviously, she was nervous. I couldn't blame her though, since there weren't many kind slave owners out there.

My mistress smiled. "Winry...no need to be so formal around me, dear, I won't hurt you."

"Yes'm," replied Winry with the same overzealous bow, sending a chuckle to both me and my mistress. It would take her a little while to unwind, obviously.

"So," said my mistress, "I gather that you know Edward?" Winry nodded, but didn't say anything more. I couldn't blame her for that. If there was one thing I'd learned in all my time as a slave, it was not to say anything more than was absolutely necessary. As smart as Winry was, I'm sure that she'd managed to figure that out as well.

"I think that's wonderful," said my mistress, "That he can get his auto-mail repaired by someone he knows."

At the mention of auto-mail, Winry kind of snapped out of her trance and ran over to me. "Repaired? What's wrong with his auto-mail? What did you do to ruin it, Edward?..." I couldn't make out anything else that she was saying, because she was just speaking much too fast. She apparently hadn't caught on yet to the fact that I was deaf. Nevertheless, she already had my auto-mail in her hands and was turning it this way and that in order to inspect it, continuing to rant about something or other, which I still wasn't catching on to.

Finally, my mistress came and interrupted our little introduction...or rather, Winry's introduction to my auto-mail, since I hadn't said a word the whole time, and told us to get into the carriage, so that we could go home. We did so, and before long, we were back at the mansion.

We walked through the hallways to get back to my room in order to show Winry where to find me. At some point, Winry apparently had started talking to me without getting a response, so she started getting more emphatic with me. "Edward, why won't you talk to me?...Edward?...Edward!" She grabbed me and spun me around to look into her face, which left a bewildered look on my face, since I couldn't imagine what I'd done to deserve that...though, since it was Winry, it could have been any reason at all, since her fuse is a bit short.

My mistress walked up and put a hand on Winry's shoulder. "He's not ignoring you, dear. We'll explain when we get to his room, okay?" Winry nodded and let go of my shirt.

The rest of the walk went without incident, as we finally reached my room. Winry's mouth opened in awe. "Edward...this is...YOUR room?" I understood why she was so perplexed. After all, I was supposed to be a slave and have an ordinary slave's quarters, not a decent room to sleep in with everything I needed provided for me.

"Yes, this is my room," I said.

Winry gave me one of those glances that I hated seeing on her as she said, "Edward, what's wrong with your voice? What are you not telling me?" Oh, right, my voice didn't sound normal, did it? Now that I'd been learning and using sign language more often than speaking, it probably sounded even more off than before.

"Um...you might want to sit down, Winry." I pulled up a chair and motioned for her to sit, which she did. I took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. I quickly signed to my mistress asking her for help, but all she said was to say whatever was on my mind. Like that helped much.

Winry finally noticed the sign language transference between us, and said, "Wait, is that...sign language? Why are you...oh no, no...not...oh, poor Edward!" She buried her face in her hands. She had caught the message without my having to say anything.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, and said, "Winry, it's okay...please don't cry." She shook her head and mumbled something which I couldn't decipher since she didn't look up. "I need to see your face to know what you're saying, Winry."

She sobbed once more, and then looked up to face me. Somehow, seeing her tear-stained face was even worse than seeing her hide her face in her hands. I felt a knot tie in my stomach. This was all my fault. It had to be. Why does it seem like I'm always hurting the people I love?

"I was saying first that you just couldn't be deaf...but then I started asking how it happened," said Winry. I breathed out a sigh of relief. She was coming around sooner than I thought she would.

I locked my gaze with hers as I pondered how to word my story. I would have to tell her the entire story from when I first met my current mistress until the present in order to give her an accurate picture of what happened. I took a deep breath, and began. "It all started one day when my former master sent me to the market..."

"...And that's why I'm here now," I finished. Winry sat silent for a moment, deep in thought. I wasn't sure whether I should disturb her thinking and talk with her, or if I should just let her be, so I hesitated for a moment.

She didn't keep me pondering what to do for long though. "So...you haven't found out what to do to get Al out of there yet?"

I shook my head. "No, and I've mulled over every possibility in my mind that I could think of. Nothing that I've come up with would work. Even if I were to abduct him, his master would know where to look."

Winry snapped her fingers. "That's it! We could kidnap Al...but do so in a way that neither he nor his master knows who did it...and leave clues leading in the wrong direction!" All she got from me was a blank stare, so she continued her explanation. "Think about it...one would think that if it were his brother abducting him, that he would just come along without a fight, right?" I nodded. "Well, if he didn't know it was us, then he WOULD put up a fight, which would convince everyone, even the fellow slaves, that it was someone totally different."

I thought on that for a moment. Hmmm...interesting idea. "But...what would we leave as clues to convince them that we weren't coming to save my brother?"

Winry thought for another moment, and then snapped her fingers. "We could 'accidentally' drop a piece of paper with a transmutation circle on it. He knows that Al does alchemy, doesn't he?"

I shook my head. "No, at least, I hope not. He knows that I do alchemy though."

Winry nodded. "Well, he should be able to put two and two together with just that knowledge. Think about it...slaves that know alchemy are few and far between, since the masters tend to exploit them until they wear them out, and they die. It's logical to think that if someone were to find out that Al was capable of doing alchemy, that they'd try to break in and steal him."

She had a point. It might actually be worth a try. "So," I said, looking directly at her, "Do you have a plan?"

She smirked in her sinister way as she whipped a wrench out of her pocket. "I'll tell you while I fix your auto-mail."

I stepped outside into the fresh air and flexed my new auto-mail arm. I couldn't actually feel it, but it felt good, all the same. I turned to look as Winry and my mistress walked up behind me. "So, are you really going to go through with this?" asked my mistress.

"Yes, I have to get my little brother out of there. Leaving him alone with that man is not an option. He's already weak, and if he ever discovers that Al can do alchemy..." My voice trailed off. I didn't really need to finish the sentence anyway, since everyone understood quite well what I meant.

"Well," said my mistress, "Just be careful not to get yourselves caught, and whatever you do, don't let the incident get traced back to here." I nodded my understanding to her, so she just turned and left.

Winry stood aghast for several moments before she finally said, "So, she's not even going to try and stop us?"

I shook my head. "She doesn't believe in slaves. She never tells us what to do. She only buys slaves to keep them safe from other masters. That's why I so badly want Al to come here, where it's safe."

Winry nodded, seemingly impressed. I have to admit though, I was still quite impressed by the whole thing myself. "Well," she said, "We'd better not waste any time then. Let's gather some more people for our crew. We'll need as much help as we can get." With that, she turned and ran off, and left me to chase after her.

That night, our little group was assembling our gear and briefing each other on the mission in the living room. Winry and I had both put our hair up and covered our entire faces with masks, as well as covering every other square inch of our bodies. We were both Amestrian...we couldn't let that fact be known by anyone involved, except for those of our group. I wandered around the room, helping others to assemble themselves, since most of those going were also Amestrian, though there were a few Drachman people coming along who supported our cause. Those people didn't need to cover themselves up as much...only enough to conceal their identities.

"Okay," I said, looking around the room, "Are we all ready?" A wide sea of nods floated my way. I smiled. This would be my first time ever of leading a group. I couldn't blow this mission. "Great. Let's go." I stepped out the door with the whole crowd right behind me.

We promptly climbed aboard several carriages that my mistress owned that she was allowing us to use as long as we disguised them so that no one would recognize them as hers, and we made off towards my previous residence.

Before long, we arrived at the plantation. Leaving the carriages on the road so as not to be heard from pulling into the long driveway, we hopped off and made our way quietly down to the various slave shacks. I wasn't exactly sure where they were keeping Al now that he wasn't a new slave anymore, but I had to at least try to find him, and do so without getting any of us caught. I was the only one on the team that knew my way around this property, so it was up to me to figure this out.

I made my way around the various slave shacks, even checking in the one that I had previously lived in, but to no avail. He wasn't anywhere. He had to be somewhere though, but where?

I was just meandering around now, since I didn't know where I was supposed to look. I almost forgot to keep my cover, since slaves weren't supposed to be up and about at night, but I managed to escape detection all the same. It was a good thing that me and everyone else in my party were wearing black.

Suddenly I looked up and saw that prophetic boy's sister run off somewhere. I quickly motioned to those in my party to follow quietly as I followed her. As I followed her up the hill, I suddenly knew where she was going. She must've run away again...and consequently, got stuck in the shack. I smacked myself in the head for not thinking of that. If Al had been caught sneaking off that one day...well, he very well might have been stuck in the shack too.

The little girl ran into the shack, so I made my way up to it and pressed my face against the outside wall. This particular shack had so many holes in the wall that if the moon were fairly low in the sky, and bright, like it was tonight, that one could actually see into the shack without turning on any light by looking through the holes.

I peered into the shack. It was really well lit on this particular night, so I could see quite clearly for not having any external form of lighting. There were a lot of people staying here this time. That was good, actually...the more witnesses, the better. If we could fool them, we could fool the master. Now...the simple trick was locating Al so that we could make an appropriate getaway. I squinted my eyes and looked again. There! There he was over in the far corner!

I pulled my face away from the wall, and made some hand motions to those in my group explaining where Al was. None of them actually spoke sign language, but we had devised a simple hand gesture system before we'd embarked on this mission so that none of us would betray ourselves with our speech. After all, most of us were Amestrian, and therefore, had an Amestrian accent.

I made one final hand gesture, telling everyone to go, and just like that, everyone scattered in different directions, all according to plan. I then turned and made my way over to the side of the shack where Al was sleeping. I wanted to help in any way I could with this escape.

I reached that particular spot, and then quietly opened the door. I waited a moment to see if anyone had noticed our intrusion, but no one had. I gave the signal indicating that those involved in this part of the mission were free to act. They barged in, not worrying about whether they made noise or not anymore, since we needed witnesses, after all.

Everyone in the shack woke up immediately, and some of them started scrambling to their feet. We had to act fast before Al's reaction time kicked in. One of the group pulled out a large burlap sack and threw it over Al before he had even completely sat up. At this, he started kicking and flailing. This was the reaction that we'd wanted...though a pang of guilt coursed through my body at the sight of his utter terror of the moment. It would soon be over though, we just had to pull this off.

The man tried to cinch up the sack Al was in, but Al was much better at wriggling around than I had thought, making it near impossible just to keep him in the sack, let alone cinch it up. I reached into my pockets and produced some cords that I had brought along just in case they would be needed to tie anything up, though I hadn't expected that I'd need to use them on Al. That sent another pang up guilt through me. I was tying up my own little brother.

I rushed over to where Al was and showed those in my group the cords I had. One man nodded to me, and then mounted Al, sitting on him in other words, yet managing to keep him in the sack at the same time. That was all the better, I supposed.

I took one of the cords and delicately tied it around Al's upper arms and chest. Another one went around his wrists and thighs, and yet a third one went around his ankles. That sufficiently stopped the wriggling, so the man who had initially bagged him was finally able to cinch it up and throw him over his shoulder. We were ready to make our getaway.

However, those in the shack weren't quite so ready to let us run off with their little friend. We could have been murderers, for all they knew, so they moved into our way to block our exit. Some of them were even so daring as to try and get near us and take us on themselves.

I ran over to the wall and knocked out a simple code that we had devised earlier. Suddenly, the room exploded with the presence of the rest of my group, sending those in the shack into utter shock. While they held the confused slaves back, those of us with Al turned and proceeded to attempt a getaway.

Just then, the little girl ran up to me and grabbed my arm. "Don't do this!" She screamed. "Please, don't hurt him! Please!" Her cries were getting louder and louder. If we weren't careful, one of the guards further down the property would end up hearing her, and then we would be done for, but I couldn't pull my arm out of her grasp.

One of the men from my group then ran up and smacked a hard blow to the back of her head. She fell limp at my feet. Irate, I began signing frantically using very angry words and expressions. He didn't know sign language, but he caught the gist just the same. One just doesn't go and knock out little girls.

Shrugging and mouthing "Sorry", he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. I sighed and shrugged, since there really wasn't anything that could be done about it now, and motioned for everyone to get out of the shack. Everyone nodded and followed procedure as I stood by to make sure that Al and that little girl were taken out safely.

After the rest of the group was out, I quickly glanced around and saw that Winry was still in the room with me. She nodded to me, and then pulled out a few choice pieces of paper as well as other items and dropped them on the floor in as inconspicuous a way as possible, and then left the room. I then followed suit.

We managed to get back to the carriages without detection, except for by a few slaves, which was good since we needed witnesses, and we all assembled back onto them and drove off faster than anything.

I was sitting up front with the driver, and the sack containing Al had been placed between the driver and myself. Things were fine until we were about halfway back to the plantation where Winry and I lived. Al began wriggling again, and it was causing the driver to have a bit of difficulty with keeping the horses under control. I sighed. Something had to be done, and fast. Perhaps this was the time to tell Al the truth.

I reached over and undid the cords that I had so carefully tied up just a few minutes before. With bated breath, I released the drawstring on the bag. It fell open onto Al's lap. I smiled for a second as I saw my little brother, free for the first time...if he would accept his fate and not run off before we got the chance to tell him anything.

Al was looking around nervously, trying to figure out where he was. I knew that he was just about ready to jump off the wagon, and I had to prevent that at all costs, especially considering what we had all just gone through in order to save him.

I reached up for my mask, but had to quickly bring my hand back down in order to grab Al as he was about to jump over the driver to get out of the carriage. Darn it, Al, just give me a little time here! I forcefully sat him back in his seat, and then grabbed him by both of his shoulders and turned him to look at me.

I once again reached for my mask. This time, Al didn't jump away. Apparently, there must've been something about the way I had held him for that second that made him realize that he should just wait and see what was going to happen.

I finally got a good hold of my mask, and with a sharp yank, I pulled it off. My blonde hair spilled out over my shoulders, and Al gasped. Whether he instantly recognized me or not wasn't quite clear, but one thing he could tell immediately from the color of my hair was that I was indeed a fellow Amestrian.

I looked up into Al's face, and his eyes met mine. He appeared to be too shocked for words, but finally managed to mouth one word, "Brother". We threw our arms around each other and cried into the other's shoulder. It was so good to finally be reunited, even after that whole ordeal that we had put him through.

"Hey, that's not fair to let Ed have all the attention, I want some too!" I hadn't heard that comment, but apparently Al had, and he looked up behind us to find the source of the voice. Someone dressed in black appeared over the top of the carriage, and pulled off their mask, revealing her own blonde hair.

"Winry!" Al mouthed excitedly. He still couldn't speak, but he certainly knew how to mouth words. Winry smiled as she reached her hands down to us, prompting us to reach ours up to hers. We locked our hands together, forming a perfect circle between us. Inspiration suddenly hit me like a gunshot.

"Never again will be be separated," I said. "Let us not let anyone break our perfect circle of friendship, and anyone that does will die trying." The other two nodded, apparently surprised that such a thing had come out of my mouth. I was a little surprised too for that matter, but I just couldn't let that moment pass without acknowledging the significance of the moment when the three of us had finally be reunited for the first time since this whole ordeal had begun.

Never again will we be separated. Never again will anything come between us. The circle will not be broken.

**_Well, I hope that you enjoyed that chapter. Leave me some good reviews in order to convince RR-Major-Ed-Pride to update, okay? A lot of reviews might even convince her to update sooner than last time, hehe. Please review!_**


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